The Last of the Graves
by Stonewall1862
Summary: Mallory Graves knows she is cursed. With little time left, she captures her greatest nemesis, the most wanted wizard in America: Tod Fischer, the black sheep of the Fischer family. But instead of sending him to the execution room she makes a deal with him: His release for the protection of her family from a rising darkness that threatens to expose MACUSA and the wizarding world.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the wizarding world.

Chapter 1: The Scouring

Hedgeberry Row was a very nice and normal place to live, and the people in it were normal in every way. They woke up in the morning, got out of bed, and put pants on one leg at a time. The fact that they were multi-millionaires never much occurred to them until they got into one of their fancy cars and drove toward the city to work.

Each house sat upon its own little hill, cared for meticulously by grounds keepers, who at this time of autumn had planted hundreds of mums along the sidewalks to bloom in the waning light. No one had ever even heard of people appearing out of thin air, and yet, on that sunny afternoon, one did. Dressed in a leather jacket with a long black braid down her back, she deserted the shade of the oak tree at the bottom of the little hill and instead stood by the gate and stopped, as if waiting for someone.

Tapping her foot impatiently, she was rewarded by another small pop and the appearance of another young woman, this one with short buzz cut and a scowl that seemed to be etched permanently onto her otherwise gorgeous face.

"How much do you think we'll be paid?" asked the first as they began to head up the driveway.

"It doesn't matter- enough to feed us. I'm more interested in what she has to say. Gordon says she was crazy, talking about exposing the magic community."

"As a no-maj? This ought to be fun."

The sprawling modern mansion blended into the hill with clean lines and pale stucco with an Italian flair. The French doors were inlaid with wrought iron. Before they even knocked, a gentleman in modern livery opened the one door. "Mrs. Shaw is waiting for you in the parlor," he explained, and ignored the two women as they each took out a stick of wood, casting an understood cautious glance at one another.

If they were expecting some sort of Victorian parlor, this was far from it. Straight back through the grand foyer was a smooth, modern room, complete with brutal styling, and black and white furniture. The impressive windows looked out onto the country-side, the hills shadowed by one or two passing clouds on an otherwise perfect day. Their attention was not on the view, however, but on the middle aged woman wearing a slinky dress, her luxurious hair in a masterful up-do. Smoking a long cigarette and flipping a small coin in her other hand, she addressed the pair.

"How good of you to come. I see that Gordon received my request for the pair of you?"

"Lady if you're a No-maj, how do you know how to contact us?" asked the girl in the leather jacket.

"I am not 'Lady'," she countered in a drawling voice. "I am Victoria Shaw, heiress of the Shaw fortune. Which one are you?"

"Madison Ruthway. A girl who don't care how much no-maj money you have."

"Well Madison, I can assure I have plenty of Dragots for you as well, as long as you complete the job I have." She took a drag on the cigarette, long eyelashes fluttering. "As you have pointed out, I do not have any magic, and while I could very well do the work with non-magic means, I feel that this will be a better way. As to how I figured out how to summon you, it did not take much digging to figure out what sort of coin I needed, and then use it to contact your group. Gordon was most helpful in sending me exactly what I requested."

"So what's the job?" Madison asked, an impatient push in her voice.

"I want this woman and her kin eliminated."

Stepping off the raised portion of the parlor, she handed them a photograph with perfectly manicured hands. It contained an average woman with wild blond hair, laughing and holding a young girl on her lap. On either side were two more girls, and what apparently was a husband behind her, holding onto the chair and looking delighted to be in her presence.

"But this is…" Madison began.

"I know who and what she is. The man in the picture is harmless, but I'm sure the girls will carry on her natural proclivities."

Finally, the other woman spoke. "You want us to get rid of the head of the Auror department? You do realize how powerful she is right? Her family is one of the most powerful magical families in America. They say she's as gifted as Picquery."

"Of course," Victoria grinned, a light in her eyes that set the other two women on edge. "My family has suffered at her hands before. And it is the entire reason of all the other Dragot Dragon members, I requested the two of you."

The ebony beauty raised an eyebrow.

"According to your employer, Miss Ruthway has a strong desire to be the best of the best, and who better to challenge than the supposed greatest Auror on the continent? And you, Miss James, are not only a gifted witch at curses, but have a drive to topple the unfair justice system your little world seems to be ruled by, am I not correct? As you can see, there is more in it than money for each of you."

For a brief moment, the dark woman's scowl faded a fraction, and her dark eyes became hungry.

Madison folded the picture and tucked it into the back pocket of her leather pants. "So how would you like us to-"

"Mommy!" a young voice screeched as a door slammed and footsteps came tumbling down the hallway. A young boy, perhaps 7, dressed in fine no-maj clothes burst into the parlor and ran to Victoria. She embraced him as he clung to her.

"Did you have a good time with Nanny?"

He nodded and seemed to then notice that the room had other occupants. Even at the tender age of seven, the boy gave the two visitors more chills than Victoria. Something about him wasn't quite right, like a song sung slightly off key.

"These women are here to help us with our little problem dear," Victoria explained.

The boy stared without blinking, and the visitors could not help but feel uncomfortable under his gaze.

"This job may take a few months," the woman with the scowl finally said.

"Oh I expect it to, if it is going to be done right," Victoria said, and took another drag of her cigarette. "We will rendevouz bi-weekly for progress reports, and continued payment. Each part of the job you will be paid for immediately. 30% is already in your accounts. Do we have an agreement?"

Immediately, Madison raised her hand and shook Victoria's, the latter looking ever so slightly repulsed. "Carter will see you out." She said at last and turned away from them, barring the opportunity for other questions.

As soon as they were out the door, Madison stretched at looked at her compatriot. "This is going to be a good money job, eh Gerry?"

"I don't care about the money. I just want to see that woman's head roll," she growled, referring to the blond woman from the picture.

"Yeah she's going to be the hard part. The daughters shouldn't be difficult, once she's gone. You have any ideas already?"

"Of course I do."

"Discuss it over a pint at the Bear Bar?"

Gerry nodded once. Glancing out over the deserted street and hills, they retreated under the shade of the oak tree at the bottom. With a soft _pop_ they vanished.


	2. A Deal Made

Chapter 2: A Deal Made

Rain was pelting at the windows as Tod Fischer crept up the rickety wooden stairs, muffling any creaking that would have eked out into the damp autumn air. Upon reaching the next landing, he crept down the hall to the door at the end. Drawing a curious, eloquent looking stick from his coat pocket, he pointed it at the lock and whispered, " _Alohamora_ ,"after which the door immediately unlocked with a small click.

Sliding like a shadow into the room, he whispered curious words again.

" _Aparecium. Accio scarab stone!"_

A small jewelry box rattled at the side of the dresser, and out burst a pin shaped like a scarab beetle, set with a handsome green stone. Tod caught it, slipping it into a moleskin bag around his neck. As he looked up from the dresser, he caught the sight of eyes behind him, watching from the figure on the bed, now clearly awake and realizing that he was about to be robbed.

All at once Tod ducked as the figure from the bed threw an arm out and a red jet of light missed and all but destroyed the dresser. Tod rolled right, sprang up and yelled " _Petrificus Totalus!"_ , pointing his stick at the figure, and immediately after pointing it at the one dingy window. " _Reducto!"_

Glass shattered, rain and wind blowing in, along with a small dark ball, no larger than that used to play pool. It began to hiss and black smoke came from it, enveloping the room in darkness. Tod leapt for the window and out with confidence, where two men who looked remarkably like one another cushioned his fall with sticks of their own.

"How'd it go?" the one asked, throwing a leg over a Honda motorcycle, while the others did the same.

"Mr. Selwyn woke up and might have cracked his head open on the end table when I stunned him, but I'm not about to go back and check," Tod explained.

"But you did get the piece right?" The other man asked, his bike roaring to life in the little alley, scaring a few cats from behind the dumpster.

"Of course I did. I don't have a 100% success rate for nothing. In fact here," he said, tossing the moleskin bag to the second man. "You take it, since you're the fastest. I think that guy was waiting for me, so we better split."

"Who would know we were coming after this scarab talisman? You think it's a trap?" asked the first man.

"I don't know Takeo, but I really don't want to stick around and find out, which is why I want you and Daisuke to carry the talisman. It will create more confusion."

Slicking his hair back, the man identified as Daisuke nodded and revved the engine, leading the other two bikes as they rolled out of the alley and into the pouring rain. Curiously, they did not seem to get wet, as if a shield around the motorcycles kept them dry and protected. Once toward the edge of town, and the lights of Seattle fading behind them, Takeo looked over at the two others and who nodded back in a silent, understood question. With a quick glance to make sure no one was around, Takeo pressed a small blue button on the dash, and the motorcycle lifted from the ground like a bird taking flight.

Cold air whipped through Tod's black locks, but the shield charm held to keep them dry as they pressed into the clouds and above. Tod saw the red jet of light in his rearview mirror, and rolled just in time to dodge it. Two figures on broom sticks erupted from the clouds, blasting with abandon at the three motorcycles. Rolling his bike, Tod caught Daisuke looking back at him. Regret filled the other man's features just before dragon flames roared from the back of his and Takeo's bikes and they disappeared into the clouds again.

Tod leaned hard, spinning the bike as he took a dive through the cloud back and back into the weather below. Heart hammering, he gritted his teeth, concentrating on flying as jinxes flew past his head. As far as he could tell, it was just one of the flyers behind him now. The angry sea churned below him, and pulling hard, he flew the bike so close to the rocky cliffs that he could feel the rain as it bounced off the dirt. Turning hard into an alcove, he was immediately met with the other flier. With a gasp he wrenched the bike up, but the other flier was ready, throwing a jinx that sent the bike careening into the trees.

Leaping at the last second, Tod hit several branches on the way down, and heard a crack as a sharp pain jolted up his arm until at last he landed on the rain softened earth.

" _Protego!"_ he breathed, holding the stick up as the two fliers dismounted and threw several hexes at him, their robes of grey billowing as they approached him. His shield held, but barely.

A woman of curly blond hair, so barely kempt it appeared to be exploding from her attempt at a pony tail lowered her hood. Seeing her companion do so, the other flier did as well to reveal a young man about Tod's age with swept back orange hair and freckles. He did not know the second person, but he knew the first, and it caused his heart to sink a bit.

"Lower your wand Tod of the Crystal Coyotes. You are cornered, and you will be coming with us," the blond woman.

Tod saw he had no chance; he was too injured to escape and there was no challenging this woman. He thought of the peruvian instant darkness powder he had in his pocket, but he was already his with an anti-apparition charm, which put escaping out of the question. That and he could feel the pain radiating up his left arm, his back wet with the trunk of the tree he was leaning against. Reluctantly, he lowered his wand.

The young man took it. The woman came over, holding her broom in one hand, and hoisting Tod painfully up with the other. In an instant Tod felt a familiar squeezing sensation.

Tod stumbled as they came out in front of a large square building in a city he didn't recognize. Out from the side, between it and another large square build sprang another, pushing both buildings aside to take it's rightful spot. This one was limestone with heavy iron doors, and Tod could not figure if it was to keep others out, or certain people in. In his most estimable opinion, it was an auror outpost. America was too big to simply apparate every criminal back to New York, so there were outposts all over to contain criminals until they could be transported.

Holding his injured arm gingerly as they entered, Tod looked for an exit, but could find none. Limestone became granite, and several intimidating fellows in robes mulled around, guarding a single winding staircase that lead upstairs. There were no windows. Driven by the woman down a long dark hallway, they came to a small room which contained a table and two chairs opposing one another, no windows or mirrors present. Her quarry slumped into a hard chair as she disappeared for several moments, leaving Tod alone with his thoughts of imminent demise.

It wouldn't be so bad, dying, he decided. He hadn't been afraid of that fate in years. It was the rotting away for years that would worry him. Cooped up with nothing to read or do. To Tod it truly was a fate worse than death.

The woman returned with a glass of water and set it in front of him. "You must be thirsty," she said casually. Tod could almost believe that there wasn't veritaserum in it. They locked eyes, sizing one another up as they had not been able to out in the rainy night. Tod could see images of 3 small girls and a bumbling middle-aged man, and something so dark…

Breaking eye-contact, the woman pulled out his wand, inspecting it in her fingers, as if enjoying a rose. "Cedar? 12 ¾ inches.."

Tod nodded.

"And the core?"

"Dragon Heartstring."

"That's fairly uncommon in America. Who was the maker?"

"Gregorovitch."

"Do you have a permit for it?"

Tod shook his head, a smirk appearing on his lips, despite his pain.

The woman smiled back, apparently in on the joke. "Of course not. Silly question. You're Tod of the Crystal Coyotes. Most wanted wizard in the United States. Why would you be following the rules?"

Clearing his throat, Tod forced himself to relax. "And you are Mallory Graves. The last of the Graves. Head Auror. Apparently married to a no-maj from what I can see, with three little girls."

"I will have do add Ligillimens to the list of your attributes," Mallory said as if adding to her grocery list. Despite her light tone, Tod felt his insight to her immediately cut off. Apparently she knew occlumency. "Did one of your friends take the talisman? If you still had it on you it should have set off the magical item detectors when we walked in."

Tod avoided the question. "I'm surprised you were tracking it. It isn't worth that much and its powers are not all that impressive in my opinion."

"Then why were you taking it?"

"I was being paid to. I would imagine that by now you have figured out that the things I go after, the jobs I take, they require a deft hand, not brute force. This particular talisman required my skill set to get to, but the more I think upon it, I feel that you were behind this job. You set me up to catch me. It is why you let my partners go free right? Be cause your goal was never to retrieve the talisman; it was to capture me?"

She grinned her Cheshire grin at him. "Exactly what I expect from you. Smart, cunning, crafty. You are very good at hiding. Your defense spells surprised even me with their strength. The auror in the bed was a bit too obvious wasn't it though?"

"That was not the first curse I would have thought of if I had found someone wandering into my room. He obviously premeditated it." Tod shifted his arm painfully, unable to stifle a soft breath at the aching sensation. "So now you have me, and I'm injured. When will my execution date be?"

"Execution? Who said anything about an execution?"

The smirk fell from Tod's lips. "I'm wanted dead or alive. How on earth would I be able to escape the execution chamber?" The idea or rotting in a cell seized on his heart again like a frost.

They locked eyes again, and Tod could see the crashing wave of darkness in her, but this time he knew it was because she wanted him to see it. The gears of his mind clicked. "You're cursed…how many people know?"

"As of right now? One, including yourself."

"Why let me see it? Surely you know that I am not a healer."

"It's not a healing I am seeking from you," she began, resting her heart-shaped face onto her hands, regarding Tod fondly. Even for her young age, she had smile lines around her eyes. "I am looking for someone with a very specific skill set. I have done my best to contain this curse, but I know that eventually it will catch up to me. I fear the person who has cast this on me may soon be after my girls. They will need protection when I am gone."

"Why not ask one of your Auror friends? They practically worship the ground you walk on anyway." Locking eyes again, Tod saw a very clear picture of the bumbling man and connected the dots. "The stigma of Rappaport's Law. No one knows you're married. No one knows you have children, because you married a no-maj."

It was if all the sunshine had briefly left her face, and she darkened. "I never would have been able to carry on the family name, or come as far as I have had anyone else known. And if anyone had found out I had small children, with all the people I have executed or sent to prison, they could have been used against me. I fear the people who cursed me already know."

"But why me?"

"Because I know your brother and-"

"I'm nothing like my brother!" he interrupted, a fierceness in him roaring to life.

"-and I know you will do it if it keeps you out of prison," she finished, her illuminating smile back. She had cornered him again.

Taking a few deep breaths, embarrassed for his outburst, Tod concluded, "So I hide and protect your children, and you won't give me life in prison?"

Turning his wand over, she offered it to him. "Do we have a deal?"

Reaching out with his non-painful arm, Tod grasped his wand.


	3. A Nanny

Chapter 3: A Nanny

David Wilson liked his job as a used car sales-man. It was simple, like him. He got up in the morning, sold as many good cars as he could, came home, ate dinner with his wife and daughters, and went to bed. Note that they were _good_ cars. David refused to be every other used car salesman; he only wanted to sell cars that he knew were right for the person buying them, so that he could lay his head on his pillow at night and know that he had helped people. He liked helping people.

But since his wife had passed, David decided that he was due some Karma, as he was now the person who could really use some help. His brother, Carl, had come down to help care for his daughters and set up the funeral arrangements, but he needed to return to Sacramento soon, which meant David would not have a baby sitter anymore. Prior to this, his wife had always walked the girls to school, and taken their youngest, Daisy, to daycare outside her workplace at the San Francisco outpost for the FBI. Because of his career, he was often up early in the mornings, and didn't have time to walk the girls to school, and his work place did not have a daycare where he could take Daisy. Thankfully, his wife, ever so smart and insightful, had mentioned in her will that it would be best, if she passed when she was young, that David should hire a Nanny until all the girls were at least teenagers. In fact she had left him the money to do so.

David decided that he still could really use some help, as he stared at resume after resume, hosted interview after interview, and still did not find anyone he felt he could trust the last reminders of his wife with. Sitting down on the chair behind his desk in his study on the first floor or the spacious Victorian home, he ran a hair through his wavy black locks and sighed. In the past two weeks he felt as though he had aged a hundred years, and an emptiness lay raw inside him. How did people even remarry after saying goodbye to the love of their life? He could barely look at his girls, especially Daisy, who looked more and more like her mother every day. It was as if a veil separated him from the rest of the world, unable to fully interact and engage with people as he once had. They could not feel his pain, nor feel how achingly hollow he was inside.

The dusty desk calendar read February 26th, the day she died. His Lory. But it was March, and time was forging onward, somehow without him.

A blond head popped into the door frame. "Daddy there's another one at the door," the child said.

Fern, his eldest daughter, was 10 years old and had inherited his easy-going manner and her mother's blond hair. She was the glue of the family, helping where she could the past couple of weeks, consoling Daisy, and making sandwiches for dinner for all of them when David was too preoccupied with funeral arrangements.

He sighed, "Go ahead and send her in I guess."

"Him."

"What?"

"It's a boy, Daddy."

David shrugged. If a woman could be a CEO, why couldn't a man be a nanny? "Send HIM in I guess then."

The blond head disappeared, and David could feel the cool draft of March wind whistle in from the entryway as the door opened and closed. He heard his daughter murmur directions, and the sound of leather-soled shoes on the wooden floor. The figure that greeted him was not one that David anticipated. He had expected an older gentleman who perhaps had once been a school teacher and now did this to pass the time. Instead a young man in his late twenties stood before him, impeccably dressed in a well-fitting suit, tall, slim, with longer black hair swept back and a piercing blue-eyed gaze. In his hand he held a black suitcase. Without invitation he sat across from David, his shoulders a bit stooped, perhaps from hours of reading.

"My name," the boy said as he clicked open his suitcase and produced a resume, "is Tod Fischer. I'm here to apply for the job as Nanny. I have already prepared my resume for you to view here."

David looked at the resume, eyes scanning and not really reading. This is not what he had in mind for a Nanny. How was he going to politely tell this man to go away so that he could find someone more motherly for his girls?

Looking up from the resume, their eyes met, and David felt strangely violated. There was no way he could hire this man. "I'm sorry but…" The young man sneezed, words tumbling out as he did so, words that David couldn't quite catch. "What was that?"

"Nothing," Tod said, his thin lips pressing to a smile that seemed foreign to his very nature.

Looking down at the resume again to gather his thoughts, David was immediately filled with a sense of calm. This man was perfect. Everything on the resume said so. He was perfect for the girls. He would hire him immediately.

"When can you start?" he found himself asking.

"I already have my trunk in the hall," Tod answered, standing and shuffling something of little importance into his pocket. "Which bedroom shall be mine?"

"The one at the end of the second-floor hallway. It has its own bathroom," David found his mouth answering again. "I'll draw up the paperwork and one of the girls will show you to your room." David stood and held out a hand, which Tod took in his own slender one and shook. "I'll introduce you to the girls."

He found Fern entertaining Daisy with some cartoons in the living room. "Fern, Daisy, this is your new nanny, Tod Fischer. He will be helping me take care of the household."

Fern gave her father a confused look, but Daisy simply giggled and said, "You dress funny."

"Fern, would you mind showing Mr. Fischer his room?"

Fern nodded wordlessly, as Tod lifted his trunk, happy he had used the lightening charm to make it easy to lift. "Aren't there three of you?" he asked, thinking of the middle daughter whom he had seen when picking about Mallory's mind.

"This is your room," Fern said motioning to the little room that had a twin bed and a dresser, done up in pale pink. "And if you're looking for Hyacinth, she's in her room. Are you really going to be our Nanny? I thought Daddy was looking for a lady for us."

"Yes," Tod answered, surveying the child. She didn't seem particularly bright. "I was the best qualified candidate."

"Oh ok." She stood by the door, watching him as he set his trunk down at the foot of the bed. He would take out the sneakoscope and his watchful orb when the girl was gone. He was going to have to lock that door or set a series of disillusionment charms to keep all the occupants of the house out of his room. It wouldn't do to have them sneak in and see his enchanted gadgets, or to see his owl sitting on the bed post. Thankfully he had sent her out into the evening before he came, and told her not to come back until the night.

For now everything would simply remain locked until he was alone. At the moment he should at least introduce himself to each family member, especially since he would be protecting them for the next several years. Turning back to the door, the eldest girl was still watching him with gentle curiosity.

"So where is your sister?"

"This way," she answered, and lead him to the room directly next to his. Poking his head into the door with was ajar, he saw the cluttered little room with dark purple walls full of posters of soccer players and people in white robes fighting. It struck him as odd that the pictures did not move in their frames.

"What do you want?"

A girl with untidy dark hair looked up at him from where she had been coloring in a book. She looked far more like her father than the other two girls, and had none of her mother's mirth and light.

"I'm Mr. Fischer, I'm going to be your Nanny."

She regarded him momentarily, and Tod found to his dismay that he could not read her.

"That's nice," she said with an attitude and went back to ignoring him for her coloring. The urge to slap her went through him, but he instead closed the door and sighed.

"Don't worry. She's just sad that mom is gone. She doesn't like weird people either."

"I'm qualify as weird?" Tod asked. He had been so sure he had acted impeccably. Sure he had to use the imperious curse on David, but other than that between his dress and his mannerisms, he thought he blended in quite well with no-maj's.

"Yeah," Fern cryptically answered, and turned to disappear down the stairs. Tod retreated to his room and shut the door. Sitting down on the bed and cradling his face in his hands a thought ran through him.

 _Maybe I should have just chosen the prison._


	4. Leaving an Old Life

Chapter 4: Leaving an Old Life

Tod decided that household charms were much more difficult than he had always supposed. Growing up, his parents had a house-elf, and with only an older brother and no sisters he rarely witnessed or had a chance to learn those spells. Even when he left the house he had grown up in, being disowned by his parents, living on his own in a small, dingy apartment, he never went very far to learn all the things he perhaps should have. He never made meals for himself when he remembered to eat. Ramen, cereal, and carrot sticks were easy access remedies to any hunger pangs he felt. All laundry was washed and thrown back into his trunk, just on the off chance that he had to move quickly. Cleaning and dusting were moot points, especially if he was gone on a job for several weeks. The only thing he cleaned regularly was the owl cage, otherwise Ascalpus, his small black barn owl, would refuse to come into the room with his mail.

So here he was trying to learn how to use the no-maj kitchen. He had figured out how to turn the oven on and off with his wand, but there were times when he simply couldn't use magic, at least not until Daisy went down for her nap in the afternoon. Dicing vegetables, preparing meat, and frying eggs were all done by hand. The results were very close to disastrous on more than one occasion, and it wasn't until mid-April that he could consistently produce edible meals. Until then, on more than one occasion he had thrown everything out, picked up the long-corded telephone in the kitchen and ordered Chinese. Even that was an adventure, until he had learned not to shout when speaking. How did Mallory ever learn to do all this without telling her husband?

As the rains decreased and the weather became milder, Tod finally established a pattern. He would rise in the morning, before anyone else, and make breakfast and lunch for the girls with the aid of his wand. He would then get the girls ready, which meant picking out clothes for at least 2 of the 3, brushing hair, making sure teeth were brushed, and ensuring that all school supplies were in the proper backpacks. David filtered in and out, and left before Tod would walk the girl the 5 blocks to the large brick elementary school. Daisy, whom he learned was too young yet for no-maj school, he then walked over to the adjacent playground and let her play for half an hour before walking her home. He then kept an eye on her while she puttered around, making a general mess and trying to bring a myriad of crickets, worms, and other critters into the house. As she played, Tod sent desperate letters to his guild, and more specifically the Watanabe brothers for extra work. He told himself that he was bored with playing house, and could easily pick up a job or two so long as they could be completed at night, but no letters seemed to reach him.

After taking Daisy to pick up her sisters, he walked them the 5 blocks back to the large, bright Victorian, and started dinner while they did homework at the table. This is where he had to work the hardest. No wand to help him, everything was done by hand, and throughout it all he could only wonder how no-maj's got anything done during the day. Throughout the entire meal-making process Fern (not Hyacinth) would ask him for help with homework. Geography and math were well within his grasp, but no-maj history and science were beyond him. David usually flew in the door for dinner, the girls showered and then he tucked them into bed. David would read a book to Daisy, Tod to Fern (he suspected that she felt bad for him since Hyacinth wanted nothing to do with him), and Hyacinth insisted that she could do it herself, thank-you very much. Lights were turned off and Tod would retreat to his room's window and cast the various protective charms he knew on the house, write some more letters to the Watanabe's and collapse into bed. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It would drive him to drink if he could get his hands on any firewhiskey.

Sometimes Tod would lay awake at night, wondering how Mallory did it. It was easy to make the excuse of business trip when she had to chase criminals for a week or two, but how did she keep her magic a secret from the man she went to bed with nearly every night? Surely, she knew that she would have to tell him one day, when Fern got her owl from Ilvermorny? And on that note, how could she think that Tod was right for this contract? Sure, he kept a keen eye out while walking the girls to and from school, and even put protective charms around the hapless David when he wasn't looking, but beyond the magic he felt useless. Daisy saw him as no more than a zoo keeper, Hyacinth interacted with him as little as possible and was the most vocal about his dismal domestic skills, and Fern didn't count because she pitied him and thought him to be helpless as a nanny. Even David he suspected of thinking he had been hoodwinked in hiring Tod, and Tod just couldn't bring himself to imperious the man more than he thought he should. How could one of the most gifted witches in America have made such a miscalculation?

It was on such a thought he was dwelling when he heard a familiar flutter at the open window. The familiar figure of Ascalpus swooped in through the window and landed on the edge of his pensieve.

"Where have you been?" he asked softly, siting up on the bed as the owl held out his leg ceremoniously. "Got something good this time I hope?"

Untying the letter from the dark beast's leg, Tod whispered, " _Lumos_ " with his wand hovering over it. He immediately recognized Daisuke's handwriting on the envelope. Greedily he ripped it open and read:

 _Just got back from Italy. Takeo and I were retrieving a series of enchanted paintings from there. Sorry to have left you in Washington. Heard you escaped Big Brother unscathed. We're meeting clients at Smuggler's Cove. Come in you're nearby._

 _Best,_

Watanabe Daisuke

" _Knox."_

Stowing his hand Tod grabbed his leather jacket and tiptoed down the stairs and out the back door. Past the sandbox and over the wooden fence he knew he was now past his own enchantments, and focusing on the bar he knew well, apparated with a faint 'pop' into the alley beside it to escape being seen.

Bright, multicolored lights illuminated the little dive, and a dull roar fueled by alcohol met his ears as he slipped in, immediately finding the brothers in the back at a tiny booth.

"He lives!" laughed Takeo, raising a glass of what looked like a very fruity drink containing a pink umbrella. Despite being twins, Tod could tell them apart; Daisuke was missing the lobe of his left ear, while Takeo wore his black tresses a bit longer. The latter was also much more outgoing, optimistic compared to his brother, Daisuke. Being partnered with them always worked well, as what one lacked, the other excelled at. For example, Takeo was excellent at transfiguration, while Daisuke was masterful in herbology, potions, and beast taming and identification. Tod could still remember watching from the balcony of the glass dome at Ilvermorny, as he, two years above them, watched as one brother sorted right after another into Thunderbird. Their parents were the liasons to MACUSA from Japan, and they were one of the few students, who like him, did not have an American-made wand. Their wands were Ollivander masterpieces; spruce with dragon heart-string for Takeo, and cherry with dragon heart-string for Daisuke.

While he had never associated much with them at school, upon joining the Crystal Coyote Guild of Small Jobs and Doings, they quickly became his favorite teammates when a job required more than one person. They were efficient, thorough, and like him, came from illustrious parentage to be marked as black sheep in their family.

"I don't feel much alive," Tod smirked.

"Well that's because your name is Death," Daisuke returned, punning on his trade name.

"Very funny."

"Where have you been man? You totally should have come with us to Italy! It was amazing! How did you escape those Aurors?" Takeo asked.

Tod took a deep breath. "I didn't. I had to make a deal, and then lay low for awhile," he frowned.

Takeo swore. "You mean you're working for them now?" Daisuke asked, eyes widening.

Tod shook his head. "No. I was forced into a deal with Mallory."

"But I heard she was dead," Daisuke countered.

"She was murdered."

The twins looked flabbergasted. "But she was so…"

"-Strong. Yeah I know. Someone was targeting her and her family though."

"She had a family?" Takeo queried, as if the question tasted bad in his mouth.

"Yeah. No-maj husband and three little girls. She knew she was going to die. In fact, she was already dying. In order to escape prison, I made a deal to protect her family after she had passed from whoever is going after them."

"You mean you had to…?" Daisuke asked, sympathetically looking at Tod's wand arm and then meeting his eyes.

"Yeah, I did."

Takeo gave a low whistle. "So, what? You just sit outside the house all day and keep an eye on them? No wonder you're bored."

"Actually, I used the imperious curse to get the husband to hire me as a household helper. That way I could walk them to and from school, make sure they're safe. But I suck at it."

"Really?" Daisuke chuckled, "But you cast some of the best charms I know!"

"It's not the charm-casting I'm bad at. It's the household helper part. That witch never told her husband she had magic, so I'm stuck doing a lot of the work no-maj style! And none of them particularly like me."

"Well that shouldn't be so hard for you," teased Takeo.

"There's a big difference between my biological family, who have never liked me, and this family who I'm bound to protect! I don't know how long I'm going to last like this."

"But why you?" Daisuke asked, his fine features puzzling over the situation.

"I don't know. She didn't even tell me who she thought might have cursed her. And from what I've seen so far, no one has been tracking the girls, and if they are, they're not close enough for the sneakoscope or any of my other tools to pick them up."

"Hmmm…I wonder…" Daisuke mumbled. Tod raised an eyebrow at him.

"I overheard Gordon, the head of the Dragot Dragons bragging to Archer the other day," he said slowly. "He was bragging how his guild will outdo ours very soon because he has a pair working on a big project. When Archer asked what it was, Gordon told him that it was already in motion, and he couldn't say too many details yet, but when it was done, they wouldn't have to worry about being caught by aurors anymore."

"What does that have to do with wiping out some little girls?" blurted Takeo.

"Think about it. If you topple all the Aurors and their families, you topple the ability of MACUSA to enforce the laws. And who better to start with than wiping the last of the family that's been enforcing the rules since the beginning? They'll probably go family to family…" Tod said.

"That's an awful lot of killing. I mean, I know you've killed a few people, but it was usually they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You've never actually cast the killing curse," Takeo frowned at Tod.

"They'll eventually come after your family too," Daisuke said softly, apprehensive of bringing up the subject of Tod's relatives.

He shrugged. "What family? I technically don't have one anymore. Besides, Wyatt and my parents are too strong, and too paranoid to be caught off guards."

"I bet Mallory thought the same thing," Takeo said.

Tod huffed. "It's hot in here. I'm going out for some air." Sliding from the booth he headed toward the door.

"Hold on man!" Takeo called, both he and Daisuke throwing a Dragot a piece on the table and following him out.

"Aren't you waiting for a client?" Tod asked after finding himself on the sidewalk in the cool, foggy night air.

"They're a small fry. Probably aren't going to even be able to pay what we want," Daisuke excused.

After walking a block to a quiet street corner, Daisuke slowed and spoke again. "Look man, we're sorry we left you in Washington. Takeo and I still feel awful about that. We didn't actually have a client tonight. We just wanted to bring you out to apologize."

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Because we weren't sure you would come out without the excuse of a job. No offense but you're not exactly the best company for going out for drinks with. You're wild on the jobs, but a little too bookish for those sort of shenanigans," Takeo joked.

Tod nodded. It was true. As adventurous as his life was, there was a part of him that liked staying inside and reading, preferring studying to manual labor. He supposed that was why the Horned Serpent's jewel had lit up when he stood in the glass dome, bucking centuries of Fischer family tradition of being chosen exclusively by the roaring of the Wampus. He was no warrior- he was a scholar.

Walking another block, he found himself heading for the quiet neighborhood where three little girls and a dithering no-maj lay safely tucked in their beds.

"What we're trying to say, is that if you need help with what you're doing…"

"…we're here for you. We owe you."

Shrugging their generosity, Tod explained, "Don't beat yourself up. They set up that job to capture me, at least that witch did."

"Still though," Daisuke offered.

"Thanks. It was pretty perfect too. They were just waiting for me to…does this fog seem thick to you?" Tod asked, a feeling of dread and misery creeping up onto him. While northern California did have a large number of dementors compared to the rest of the world, Tod doubted their arrival while he was away from the house was a coincidence. He had been tricked again. Whirling on his compatriots, a fierce anger overtook the misery from the dreaded beings he could feel. "Are you in on this?!" he demanded.

Both brothers looked shocked, and even in the dim lights, Tod quickly locked eyes with each and carded through their thoughts and memories. There was no deceit to be found. In fact, they were coming to the same conclusion he had. Swearing loudly, he pulled out his wand and focused with all his might on the brightly colored Victorian, a familiar compressing sensation propelling him from his spot on the downtown sidewalk to the scene. As he suspected several dementors were on the verge of breaking his protective charms, whirling about the house, figuring their way in, their rattling breath shaking something small and terrified in Tod's chest. Thoughts of despair welled up from inside him, questioning what he was doing. He was no Mallory, no Auror. Who was he to try and protect these young girls left in his charge? He was going to fail…

Compartmentalizing his misery as best he could, he thought about when he had first enchanted his motorbike, or learned how to read…

"Expecto petronum!" he shouted into the night air on that deserted street. A weak wisp of light flowed from his wand, pausing the dementors in their task, and diverting their attention to him. Happier. He needed something happier.

"Expecto petronum!" erupted two voices near him over the hum of their motorcycles as they landed nearly onto the hilly lawn. A monkey and an elegant crane made of light burst away from them, running and flying at the dementors, driving them away.

Slowly, the fog cleared.

"I think that's the first time I've ever seen you fail at a charm," Daisuke said, breathlessly turning off the engine of his bike.

 _You should see me do household charms,_ thought Tod, but instead said, "I've never been able to master that one. I can never conjure a happy enough memory."

"Is this the place?" Takeo asked, gesturing to the house, sitting quietly before them.

"It's gotta be," Daisuke answered for him. "I can feel all your protective charms. They have Tod of the Crystal Coyotes all over them."

"Which means…?"

"They're not the ones I would have chosen, but then again, you're a lot more subtle than Takeo or I. No wonder whoever is after the girls hasn't attacked before now. They probably couldn't find you before, and when they did, they had to figure out how to get past all this."

"Well they've found me now," sighed Tod, running a hand through his hair.

"We could help," offered Takeo.

"He's right," said Daisuke. "Obviously you can't leave your task now. I mean, you could have died tonight had we not been here. You can't leave these kids. Takeo and I still have freedom of movement though. We can figure out who's behind this while you keep and eye on the little girls and the no-maj."

Tod scratched his chin thoughtfully. It definitely would help if he knew who was behind it, because the sooner he could get rid of them, the sooner his task of protecting the last of the Graves would be complete.

"Alright," he agreed. "If you help me, you can stop feeling guilty about leaving me in Washington. Your debt will be repaid."

When the brothers finally departed, Tod felt bone-weary. It was late, and he was going to have to be up in a few hours. After re-fortifying the defensive charms, adding one or two new ones, he slipped inside and up the stairs after grabbing a quick mug of hot cocoa. He had almost made it to his room when he heard the sound of sniffling. It was coming from the door between Hyacinth and Fern's room and David's bedroom. Poking his head in, he saw Daisy sitting by her nightlight, holding her stuffed kitty and crying.

Speaking as if to a frightened animal, he asked, "Daisy? What's wrong?"

"Scary dream," she sniffled, looking out from the choke hold on her stuffed animal, snot running from her nose and mixing with the salty tears. It was almost a shock to not see her with a smile on her face. Scanning his memories, Tod could not recall a time when she had cried since he had come here, with the exception of when Hyacinth picked on her. The scary dream made sense though, with dementors having been outside her bedroom window a mere half an hour beforehand.

Bending down, he offered a hand. "C'mon. Let's go to the bathroom and get cleaned up."

Tentatively, as if just realizing that he was an actual person for the first time, she placed her small hand in his. The bright light of the bathroom stung his eyes as he wetted a cloth and wiped her face.

"Wipe Sarah's too? She was crying too," she requested, holding up the stuffed cat. Doing his best to maintain a serious demeanor, he wiped the cat's as well.

"Alright, let's get you back to bed."

At this, Daisy shook her head, grabbed at his jeans and buried her face in them.

"Daisy you need to go to bed," he tried.

She shook her head and then shyly looked up at him. "Those scary things will come back in my head. Stay with you?"

Deliberating a moment, Tod saw in her minds eye that she had indeed dreamed of the dementors, and felt a bit guilty. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and he didn't like it.

"Ok. But just this once."

Eagerly she let go of his pants and gripped his hand instead. He lead her to the little bedroom, tapping the door twice to make sure that the disillusionment charm was activated so she could not see the owl and clutter of magical instruments that lay around the room. Staying fully clothed and just toeing his shoes off, he crawled into bed, pushing up against the wall to give enough room for the little girl to lay in the crook of his arm. He allowed her to sip some of his cocoa, which seemed to help. After, she curled up, her head on his shoulder, one hand preoccupied with the kitty, the other fisted into his shirt. She lay for a bit, writhing around now and again to get more comfortable, always just as Tod was drifting off. In a final, exhausted attempt to make sure she went to sleep, he took his wand out and murmured a small charm his mother had used for him when he was young and would not sleep.

Slowly, as if bleeding into the night air, soft, classical music filled the room. Within a few moments Daisy's breathing evened out, and Tod was sure she was asleep. He followed soon afterward.


	5. Dittany

Chapter 5: Dittany

"We have a problem."

The words did not break Victoria Shaw's concentration as she swung her club with expert precision at the unassuming little white ball on the tee, sitting in the manicured grass. With a _clack_ the ball ascended into the air, arced, and fell onto an advantageous spot on the green way. Only now that she saw the destination did she join her husband's gaze upon the two young women behind her. One was shorter, with jet black hair tied back into a long braid and a predatory look in her eyes. Her companion was taller with chocolate skin and a characteristic scowl that never seemed to fade.

Her husband, a handsome man in his early fifties handed his club to his caddy and asked, "What sort of problem Miss Ruthway?"

"The girls have a guardian," Madison deadpanned.

"Well yes, Mallory's husband is still alive, is he not? You can certainly get rid of-" her husband began, but was cut off.

"Not that sort of guardian. They have a protector," the taller woman said.

"Is it an Auror, Miss James?" Victoria asked, adjusting the visor on her head and taking off her sunglasses. Despite the heat beaming down from the cloudless sky, no sweat spots appeared on her white golfing outfit. Her husband was equally clean.

"No, it's a guild member," explained Madison.

"Oh, your own?" Victoria inquired.

Gertrude, or as Madison called her, Gerry, shook her head. "No, he's from the Crystal Coyotes. They do a lot of artifact recovery, less bounty hunting than us. This one, however, has an impressive kill count. Most of them were accidents, but many consider him dangerous, and he has the largest bounty on his head in the country. There were rumors he was captured last fall, but I bet that was Mallory recruiting him for this job. She knew her time was short."

Victoria frowned and looked at her husband Rufus, who in turn glanced back at her. "If the Aurors are some sort of police force, like Victoria explained to me, why not put something like a deputy in charge of guarding her children?" he asked in a drawling voice.

Madison answered this time. "Because she's cunning. She knows that her Aurors are great at tracking dark wizards, but not the greatest at hiding. They're great at protecting themselves, but not always other people. They're used to being the predator, not the prey. He's used to being both."

"And who is _he,_ exactly?" Victoria queried.

"Tarian Wilhelm Fischer. He and I were both in Horned Serpent at Ilvermorny. He was a year below me. All the Crystal Coyotes go by trade names, and his is Tod. He comes from a family of Aurors. In fact, his parents and older brother are still on the force. He disappeared about a year after graduation, and his parents and brother never talk about him, like he never existed or something. From what I remember he was always a bit of a dark horse. Only one in his family that had been sorted into something other than Wampus since Ilvermorny was founded. If I recall correctly, he received an honor for inventing a few new charms while he was still at school- they were his best subject by far. He sucked at herbology though," Gertrude answered.

"I think the Krays may be working with him as well," Madison added. "They were two years below me in Thunderbird. They were always full of themselves. Their real identities are Takeo and Daisuke Watanabe, sons of the Japanese Liaison at MACUSA. Their older sister was in my year, and she was always one of the good girls." She rolled her eyes in distaste. "Anyway, all I remember from them is being the center of attention and being useful on the quidditch pitch. I think they were both chasers. Their identities are still fairly secret, and I doubt their parents even know what they're doing."

"Hmmm," Victoria murmured, resting her nimble weight on her club. "It doesn't sound like we can black mail them. Any chance of defeating them? Paying them off maybe?"

At this, Gerry almost smiled. "I have an idea. It will just take a little bit of time to brew."

"Excellent," Rufus smiled, as if he had just closed an important business deal.

"Time is running out for my son Miss James. For his sake, as well as your own, I do hope it works, so that we may soon be free of this curse," Victoria added, her veiled threat travelling on a tone that one would associate with the exchanging of recipes.

Although confused by the remark, Gertrude took that as their cue to leave, turned with Madison, walked a few paces, and disappeared from the golf course.

David was unsure of when it happened, but suddenly his life was a little bit less chaotic. Every day he had been carrying his broken heart around with him, and never seemed to get a moment's peace in order to fully deal with it. Instead, he had been throwing himself at his work, and had racked up so many cars sold at the used dealership that he was reasonably sure that his Employee of the Quarter bonus was not entirely a pitying move by his superiors. Time seemed to slip away from him, going through the motions, moving through the chaos in his own personal fog, unable to emotionally engage with anything, until one particular evening.

He had come home from work, now in the daylight with the lengthening days of the month of May. And as he sat at the table, the girls chittering around him and Tod serving up soup, he put a spoonful to his mouth and realized that for the first time in such a long time, his food tasted good.

For the past month and a half, since Tod had come to stay with them, David had come accustomed to the other man's poor cooking skills. Burned meat, overdone vegetables, and David had simply gone with it. He didn't have the energy to engage in finding another, better nanny.

But this soup was not only hot and delicious, but it smacked of something familiar. Looking down at his dish, he tried to figure out what it was. Chunks of beef floated around in a flavorful broth, accompanied by green beans, carrots, and corn. White dumplings completed the picture by floating on the surface like fluffy pillows.

"Did you use mom's recipe?" Fern asked as Tod was helping Daisy not to burn her mouth by putting an ice cube in her hot soup.

"I think so. Your little sister found the book on the shelf in the family room and brought it over. I thought I would try my hand at it."

"It tastes like hers," she said softly.

"No it doesn't," spat Hyacinth. "Mom's was better."

Fern looked at her but didn't argue. David had to agree with his eldest. It tasted just like his Lory's, and the thought of it brought sudden tears to his eyes. Standing abruptly from the kitchen table, all the girls, as well as Tod looked at him. "Bathroom," he murmured and headed straight through the family room and up the stairs. Reaching the master bedroom, he closed the door and sat down on the edge of the bed, putting a hand over his mouth to stifle a sob as tears left his eyes in droves. Why was he crying? It was just soup!

But it wasn't just soup. It had tasted just like hers, and in doing so it had opened the floodgate of emotions David had set on the backburner to deal for a later date. This boy…this nanny…had brought them to the front. Laying down for several moments, David thought about her and allowed himself to cry. He missed her so much. She had been a terrible cook when they started dating too, but by the time Fern was born she'd developed some solid recipes. The soup had been her favorite, and if he recalled, Fern's favorite as well. He remembered catching her writing them down with a quill and ink, how he had gently teased her about it, wondering how hard it was for her to just remember a few ingredients and shoving them into a pot. He remembered her eyes crinkling with her smile, her golden tresses dancing in the light of the kitchen as she stuck her tongue out at him.

He missed her radiant face, her odd quirks, her loving demeanor, her fierceness for life. She was all that was bright and good in the world and he would never hold her, or call her his own again. He had always suspected that it was too good, that their happily ever after wasn't something he had ever deserved in his life. He was just a shy, lowly used car salesman. She was everything to him. And now she was gone.

A soft knock at the door made him hastily blow his nose and wipe his eyes. He was surprised to see Tod cautiously peering in as he opened the door. They locked eyes and David instantly felt some shame. It would be so obvious that he had been crying. A few emotions flashed a crossed the caretaker's face.

"You miss her," he stated softly, a surprising lack of pity in his voice.

"Everyday," David found himself answering.

Tod nodded in understanding. "I thought my cooking might have done you in again. I brought you up some milk and Oreos in case you were still hungry," he said, setting the plate and glass he had carried onto the dresser by the door. "You should talk to your daughters. They miss her too," he said before shutting the door gently behind him.

After retuning downstairs, Tod found Hyacinth leading Daisy up the stairs to get washed up. Idly making plans to clean up from dinner and then go cast the defenses on the house before tucking everyone in. Rinsing the last of the dishes (he hadn't dared to try the dishwasher yet), he stuck them on the rack next to the sink, and drew his wand from his pocket. The sliding glass door lead out of the kitchen and into the backyard, and Tod was just about to check on his charms when in the shadows of the dying day he saw a small figure sitting on the edge of the patio.

He had assumed that Fern had beaten her sisters upstairs to clean up before bed, but apparently, she had not. Instead, she sat at the end of the concrete slab with a small pot in her hand with something low and green sprouting from it. Sliding the wand back into the pocket of his leather jacket, he sat down next to her. Immediately he realized something was not quite right.

"What's wrong Fern?"

Typically the shyest of the bunch, she shrugged and looked at her plant. Why couldn't girls ever be direct?

"What kind of plant do you have?"

Another shrug. "I don't know. It was Mom's. It's just…the soup…"

Tod sighed. Another person crying over soup.

"I'm sorry I made it. I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't!" Fern rushed, looking flustered. "I just…I miss her a lot." She paused for a beat. "We used to come out here in the summer and garden together. Dr. Chezny used to look over at all our flowers and plants and say we had the prettiest gardens in all the bay area. She said she was going to teach me about herbs this year." Fat tears rolled silently down over her freckles.

Tod didn't doubt that she was going to teach her herbs, but probably not basil or parsley. And with magic like theirs, it was unsurprising that it manifested in well grown plants. Putting a hand on her head affectionately he said in a lowered voice, "It sounds like you and your mom had very green thumbs. Can I see your plant?"

Wordlessly she handed it over. Herbology was always his worst subject, but even _he_ remembered what dittany looked like. He even remembered having to write an essay in his first year on all the different uses of it. Now he kept a small bottle with him in his trunk when he was wounded during a job, because its essence was healing, and even eating the leaves would help heal moderate cuts.

"This is dittany," he announced, handing it back to her.

"How did you know?"

"I know a little bit," he said in mock offense. "Probably not as much as you and your mother, but I know a few things about plants."

Looking at him with large wondering eyes for the first time instead of pity, Fern asked, "Can you teach me?"

Tod felt a warm sensation blossom in his chest. "I'll tell you what: I have a book with all sorts of herbs and fungi in it. We'll take a look at it and pick a few that we can grow here this summer. Ok?"

Nearly dropping her dittany, Fern tackled him, grinning and squeezing him so hard he thought he felt a rib displace. With a wide smile she wiped her eyes and bounced up from her seat, then grabbed his hand to pull him up. Instead of letting go, she continued to hold it and drag him inside, asking all the while, "Can we plant more dittany? What about roses? Cauliflower?"

Shortly after Tod had left the milk and cookies, David got up, chiding himself for losing his composure like that. Instead his mind switched to his suspicions. Why had he chosen Tod as a nanny again? Every time he tried to think of the reason, he couldn't come up with one, and when he tried to remember their meeting, it was rather blank. His food was improving, but something still seemed off, as if the younger man were waiting for something to happen. And how could someone become a nanny if they didn't even know how to cook?

Peering out the bedroom door, he heard the two younger girls in the bathroom, hyacinth helping her sister brush her teeth. Walking quietly to the end of the hall he opened the door to Tod's room. The nightlight on the end table lit the pink room, which looked only slightly more lived in with Tod's trunk next to the dresser. It looked as normal as could be. Looking back to the hallway to make sure Tod wasn't coming, he inspected the small room. Tod had taken a few things out of his trunk and set them on the dresser, but they looked ordinary enough; a comb, a book mark, some stationary, and little figurine of a wolf or coyote cut from glass. On the dresser sat a book titled 'Determined Defenses: The best charms for hiding your haunts!' by Brock Hardshield. Picking up the aged book to get a closer look, something small and silvery tumbled from between the pages.

Leaning down, his heart lurched into his throat as he picked up a tiny diamond pendent suspended on a silver chain. This had been Mallory's. He distinctly remembered seeing it in the jewelry store last fall, and instantly thinking of his wife, had given to her as an anniversary present shortly before she had gotten sick. Why would Tod have this? He had thought Lory had been buried with it! He needed to confront him at once!

Upon hearing the young man's voice out the window, he stuck his head out in preparation of summoning him, but instead saw that he was not alone. Looking down from his vantage point he witnessed the plant conversation, the way he had comforted his eldest, how her smile lit up like it hadn't in months. The words caught in his throat and he paused. He couldn't yell and scream at the man who had given his daughter's smile back. No. He was a rational man. Maybe Tod had found it? There had to an explanation.

Slipping the pendent into the back pocket of his pants, David slipped from the room just in time to see Tod coming up the stairs with Fern, his eldest grinning, and the softest expression David had ever seen on man's face.

"You get cleaned up and I'll meet you in your room to read a little bit before bed," Tod said, Fern running to the bathroom as her sisters exited, nearly colliding with one another. "Feeling better?" Tod asked him as they skirted around each other and the chaos in the hall.

"Yes, thank you."

"No problem. I'll let you tuck in Daisy ok?"

David nodded, and watched the slim back retreat into the little pink bedroom. Who exactly did he hire?


	6. Revelio

Chapter 6: Revelio

From that evening onward, David vowed to keep an eye on Tod. The mystery that was his nanny seemed to give him a new lease on life, and while the sadness and desperation he felt at the loss of his Mallory was still there, it took a back seat to his curiosity about the man at the end of the hall. In a startling revelation, he realized that other than lack of skill in the kitchen, he did not know very much about the man looking after his children.

When he really looked, the information confused him further. The house always seemed exceedingly clean, but David never caught the man cleaning. He sometimes looked at things, things that every adult human should be able to use like a dishwasher, as if it were some testy dragon and he was not up to that challenge. The vacuum was the only thing collecting dust in the house. His kitchen skills were improving, but he still looked painfully uncomfortable around most cooking utensils. Sometimes David would even catch him doing odd things, like standing outside in the twilight, talking to himself, or standing on the porch murmuring words he couldn't quite catch as he watched Fern play with a friend in the yard. If caught off guard, he would immediately shove his right hand into his pocket. His style of dress seemed to be the only thing that seemed comfortable about him. While David stuck to brown suits and what his late wife called 'bad ties', Tod's usual attire was a dark pair of slacks, a slim white shirt, the collar unbuttoned, and a black belt to match his black oxfords. Everything seemed perfectly fitted to him. The only jacket he seemed to own was a black leather jacket he wore sometimes in the cooler evenings, or if the fog rolled in. On those dreary evening he made hot cocoa for everyone, which put them all in better spirits, and it was the only thing David saw him reliably eat or drink.

Tod's relationship with the girls had also developed slowly in past couple months of his stay. No longer a stranger, David found Fern going to him for help with homework, or talking about her day, and seeking his approval. Daisy, had also become his shadow, following him without complaint, and now running to Tod instead of her father when she had a bad dream or was scared.

The only one who Tod had not grown close with yet was Hyacinth, but David couldn't blame him. Hyacinth could be very difficult, independent, and since her mother had become ill, had become more sullen and angry. Every Saturday morning Tod walked her to Karate practice down the street. This gave David time to bond with his other children. Upon one such occasion, Hyacinth came home, running in the house before Tod. She had her head down, and marched right past where Daisy and Fern were coloring at the kitchen table with David's help, and out the back sliding door without saying a word, slamming the door as she left.

"Hey!" David yelled after her, the other two girls looking aghast. No matter how angry she was she didn't need to break the place! Seeing Tod walk in and remove his jacket, he demanded, "Is there a reason my middle child nearly broke the glass on the sliding glass door?"

Tod glanced at David, giving the older man the sensation of not so much being looked at, but being looked through. Turning to the freezer and extracting an ice pack, he explained, "She lost the match for her green belt. I think she got flustered during the test and messed up somewhere. Another student ended up giving her a black eye too." Sighing and wrapping the pack in a dry wash cloth he sighed, "I'll go talk to her."

David nodded said, "Tell her that there's no reason to be slamming doors please." Sitting back down, he returned to his coloring with his other two girls.

Tod took a deep breath and slipped out the back door and into the backyard. The trees were now fully blooming their leaves, and the thick gardens along the brown fence were coming back to life. If the weather held, tomorrow perhaps he and Fern could clean them up. He found Hyacinth with his back to him, swinging back and forth from the old wood and rope swing dangling from the single large oak tree that provided the only mature shade in the yard. With long, dark tresses and olive skin, she looked much more like her father than her siblings did. She had a stick in her hand, and from what Tod could see, she would whack it against the ground, light the tip on fire, and then put it out again in the dirt. If he had any doubts of whether or not she would be getting an acceptance letter from Ilvermorny, they were gone now.

"I used to do that," Tod said, startling Hyacinth as she plunged the little flame into the dirt. She looked mortified. She hadn't wanted him to see that. He continued, "My brother would tease me, or my parents would get down on me, and I would sneak out of the house and go hide in the woods, set a couple sticks on fire just to watch them go out. I would do it until my mother send Dulbis, that was our house-elf you see, to come get me when it was getting dark."

Hyacinth paused her swinging, and in her eyes he could read suspicion. She was trying to figure out if he was making fun of her. "Didn't you ever wonder why only you could do that, and none of your friends at school? You ever get scared and things just happen? You fall and don't get hurt, or you're running, and a door just happens to open?"

Now the young girl appeared confused. "How did you know…?"

Tod sat down on the patch of grass next to the swing and handed her the ice pack. "Because you're just like me. Actually, I should say: You're just like your mother."

Hyacinth put the pack on her eye. "What are you talking about?"

"Your mother was a witch. She could do things just like you. She even went to a school to learn how to control it. She was very talented, and when she finished, she was one of the most powerful witches in America. In fact, she came from a long line of powerful magic folk. And now that power is in you, and I suspect your sisters as well."

"You're lying." She frowned.

Gently taking the branch from her, he lit the tip on fire, but this time with a large green flame that he shortly after put out. "Am I?"

Shifting in her swing, Hyacinth left it and slowly lowered to the ground beside him. "You mean I'm not some sort of freak of nature?"

"No. I'm sure your mother could have explained this better than me though."

"Then why did she leave?"

Tod frowned, trying to think of a valid excuse. "She had to. Everyone dies."

"If she really had this _magic_ stuff, then why couldn't she have healed herself?" she sniffled, her good eye tearing up.

"Because the illness she had could not be cured with magic." It wasn't technically a lie. Most No-maj illnesses could be cured with magic, but a curse like Mallory's could not.

"That's stupid." The single tear slipped down her cheek.

"I agree, but it is the way things are."

Hyacinth paused for a moment, looking at the yard out of her one good eye. "Did you really know my mom?"

Tod was not about to tell her that they had been mortal enemies. "As well as anyone in the magic community did, I guess. Your mother was well known."

"Is that why she sent you? To teach us?"

 _To torture me, more like,_ Tod thought, but answered, "No. She sent me because she wanted to make sure you and your sisters would be safe until you were old enough to attend Ilvermorny."

"When will that be?"

"Well I expect your sister to be getting her letter this summer, and she will attend in the fall. Everyone starts at age eleven."

Hyacinth frowned again, doing the little math in her head to figure out how many years before she could go. "Does dad know?"

Tod shook his head, "No. And it would be best not to tell him either until I can sit down with him. Your sisters as well."

"You mean I'm the only one who knows?" Hyacinth asked, her eyes lighting up despite the darkening bruise on the right one.

"Yes. I'm trusting you to keep this a secret."

For the first time since he had met her, Hyacinth smiled. Tod could see a bit of Mallory in her. "Can you show me some more magic?"

"Ok, but only a little bit," he said, looking about to make sure no one was watching. Taking his wand from his pocket, he swished and flicked it at the stick while reciting, " _Wingardium Leviosa"._ The stick hovered a little bit above the ground with direction from Tod, who then lowered it back to the ground.

"Will I get one of those?" Hyacinth asked, gesturing to the wand.

"Of course. After you're sorted into your house at Ilvermorny, you will be brought into a separate room where your wand will choose you."

"Choose me?"

"Yes, every wand is a little different, depending on the wood and its core. Mine is cedar wood with a dragon heart-string core."

"You mean there's real dragons?" her face open and inquiring.

Tod smirked at her excitement, "Yes, you'll learn all about them and all the different beasts that most people have no idea about."

She paused and then asked, "How many houses are there? What house was my mother in…?"

"There's four, and your mother was in Wampus, I think."

"What's a Wampus…?"

Questions like this continued over the next hour or so until lunch time came and went. Tod found Hyacinth to be an engaging and precocious child, far apart from the anger and sullen attitude he usually saw. His confession had given her a sense of belonging in a world where the one individual that understood her and her emotional outbursts had left. Of each of the individuals left behind by Mallory's untimely demise, Hyacinth had been the most ill-prepared. She had inherited Mallory's fierce, warrior spirit, and without a parent that understood her that fierceness had turned to anger, and that anger into frustration, until she had successfully alienated herself from her entire family, sure that no one would understand her. And while Tod may not understand all the roller coaster of emotions that Hyacinth unleashed, he now provided a very necessary source of stability and encouragement.

In the days following the Saturday revealing, David saw a noticeable difference in his middle daughter. While still tough and never sweet, she was more pliant; actually joining in conversations at the dinner table, coloring with her sisters on a rainy day, spending less time shut up in her room. The crowning achievement was when after he had tucked Daisy in and kissed her goodnight, he peaked in on Tod reading to Fern to find that Hyacinth squeezed on the bed with them, watching the pages with interest while Tod read along. It was as if he had hired some magical miracle-worker. Clutching the pendant he now carried everywhere in his pocket, he couldn't help but feel as though he were waiting for another shoe to drop. Something was going on here that he just wasn't getting, like he was missing a crucial piece of the puzzle that was Tod.

For his own part, Tod felt like he was playing a waiting game. Every night before he would cast the protective charms, he would stand at his window and search the skies for a moment, waiting for Ascalpus to bring him word on what they were up against and who was behind the murder of Mallory. Each night he would sit and wait, but his owl didn't seem to want to appear. Weeks he was without word. Now and again he reminded himself that he saw no deceit in either of the talented brothers' eyes, that they would eventually bring him word. Reconnaissance missions always took a while. It was difficult though, fearing every bush, turning every corner, every night of fog. It was like waiting for a Hidebehind.

Finally, just before the holiday weekend at the end of May, Ascalpus came swooping in with silent grandeur to land with noiseless grace on the dresser. Offering the letter in his talons, Tod grabbed it and scooped a handful of owl pellets into the feeder in his cage with a "Thanks buddy." Tearing open the letter his eyes absorbed the words with haste.

Hey Tod,

Sorry we haven't been sending regular letters. We're not sure who is watching who at this point. It took us awhile to tail them and then figure out who exactly is the head honcho. As far as Takeo and I can tell, the person who came up with the plans to murder Mallory Graves was some rich no-maj named Victoria Shaw. We have never heard of her, and wondered if maybe you had. From what we researched, she comes from a long line of politicians, and her husband owns a diamond mine, but he's a no-maj too. They have one son who is 8. According to no-maj press he's in fragile health, so he doesn't go out with the parents much.

The bigger problem is who she's hired. She had GertrudeJames and Madison Ruthway doing her dirty work. They're on to us, so we've had to lay low for a while. Gertrude is pretty stationary, holed up in an apartment in DC, but Madison is mobile. Takeo caught her lifting a cauldron the other day, so we think they may be plotting something for the other Aurors, given that they're so close to NYC. We'll try to keep you updated on anything else we find.

Best,

Dai

PS: Feed your bird more. He was pecking at us until we wrote back to you. I think he was hungry.

PPS: Since we're working our birthday weekend, feel free to send us presents.

Despite the jest at the end, Tod felt a chill run through him, as if a dementor were approaching his window. He knew both the women that this Shaw woman had hired, and it did little to comfort him. For starters, he recalled Gertrude, as she had been in Horned Serpent with him, only a year ahead. While rather brilliant, she hadn't been an overtly outstanding or memorable student. Hardworking, sure, with her best subjects being potions and transfiguration. She had been mostly quiet and intimidating when Tod had ever interacted with her. If he recalled, she was on the quidditch team too. A bludger maybe? From school the only thing her remembered standing out about her was her beautiful Jonker-made ebony wand.

What troubled him about her was after school. He could still remember the trial, as his elder brother had worked on it to try and help her. Gertrude had been attacked by 3 wizarding men in NYC while she was trying for a job as an Auror. According to his brother, whom he was still on speaking terms with at the time, they had done horrible things to her. But something had gone wrong with the trial; the men knew too many people higher up, so they got off with a mere wrist slapping. Gertrude had disappeared after that, and word was that she had joined one of the crime guilds.

Madison Ruthway he knew perhaps a bit more about, as she had been in his year. Though she was in Thunderbird, he had had several classes with her, including Defense against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Potions. He could recall she had never been good at the latter, which required patience and finesse. When it came to the Dark Arts she was a master. Year after year she proved herself an exceedingly worthy opponent in the Dueling Club, even being crowned champion their last 3 years at Ilvermorny. Temperamental and reactive, Tod had little doubt that she would be a fierce opponent if he were to come up against her now. She had always been obsessed with being the best, or the toughest person in the room, and Tod doubted that her burning desire to be so had cooled much since school.

Using his wand for light, Tod wrote off a quick note of warning based on what he knew of them, and looked over at Ascalpus, who was snoozing in his cage.

"C'mon buddy I need you to take this to Daisuke and his brother," he said, tapping the cage.

Ascalpus gave him a scandalized look and begrudgingly held out his leg.

"Thanks Asculpus," he said, tying the letter and helping his friend to the window.

With a great stretch of dark wings and the rasping shriek that only a barn owl can provide, Ascalpus leapt from the window sill and glided away into the darkness. Standing at the window until he could see him no more, Tod raised his wand with new apprehension in his heart, and began to murmur.

"Protego maxima…fianto duri…repello inicum…"


	7. A Most Potent Potion

Chapter 7: A Most Potent Potion

David had not made a conscious decision to start a fight when he got up that day. He had things he needed to do on his day off, like grocery shopping and getting an oil change in his car. He didn't need the aggravation of a fight. He'd had several feisty clients this past week, and didn't need another human being yelling at him.

It had, however, started when he came down the stairs, dressed and ready to grab his grocery list. Fern had her Barbies all over the family room, playing but Daisy was uncharacteristically not playing with her, as she often did when there were dolls out. Instead, she was curled up on the couch with Hyacinth, Tod in between the two of them, holding a newspaper.

"But how do they get the pictures to move?" Hyacinth asked, looking at her nanny.

"Magic of course. Our cameras are different."

"Magic…" Daisy whispered, her small hands grasping at the yellowing pages.

"Are there any pictures of mom in there?" The elder girl asked, drawing the attention of even Fern, who paused in making her one doll fix what David assumed was dinner in the doll house.

"There might be. This paper is old enough. Though if you ever want to snoop around in my trunk again your best bet would be grabbing one of the books. They'll tell you more than the Wizarding Times. Let's see if she's in the blotter…"

"Why would my wife be in a police blotter?" David found himself asking, his hand feeling for the pendant in his pocket.

Tod looked up, startled, having clearly not noticed that David was there. There were bags under his eyes as if he hadn't been getting enough sleep, or was under some sort of stress. He looked unsurely at his employer, and David got the sense of being read again.

Taking a deep breath, Tod began, "I suppose you would have to be told sooner, rather than later." He paused, looked at Fern, and then back to David. "You have to understand David, that the only reason I had not revealed this to you immediately, was because your wife hadn't."

"My wife hadn't what? What are you talking about?" he asked, fearing something terrible. Was his wife alive? No, he had seen her die horrendously at St. Ignasious'. Had she… could she have had an affair…?

"This might be a lot to take in David, but your wife was a witch."

David felt his brain shut down. "A what?"

"A witch. And a rather talented one at that. And just like her, your daughters have magic too."

Had he taken too many blood pressure pills? He suddenly felt dizzy, and wobbled on his feet. Taking a curious stick from his pocket, Tod made a small gesture with it and one of the kitchen chairs zoomed from its place at the table to catch him as he sat down. He looked around at it, wondering how it had gotten there.

Tod stood up from the couch and crouched in front of him, and spoke to him as if he were giving a terminal diagnosis. "I know this is going to be a lot for you to take in David but, there is a world behind your world, and your wife was very much a part of it."

David looked at him. "Did you know her?"

Tod frowned, "For a short while."

"Did you…?" he couldn't finish the sentence, but Tod seemed to read his mind just the same.

"No. Very much no. That was not the nature of our relationship. Besides, I know she loved you and her daughters very much. You were always at the front of her thoughts."

An anger rose in him. This was absurd. "This isn't real," he said, very determinedly getting up. "And you are a very cruel man to play such an awful prank on a widower and his daughters!" he sputtered, retreating to the kitchen for what he originally came for: the grocery list. Coming back to the living room, he looked the slight man straight in the eyes. "I'm ending our contract. Please have your things packed in 24 hours."

Amid the gasps of shock and wails from the girls, Tod's face remained unflinching and unreadable. Squirming under the gaze, David exited and marched to the roomy Dodge down the steps of the front lawn. Driving the familiar streets in the rain, all he could think of was how the chair got to him so quickly. Had he really been blind to everything about his wife? And why hadn't she trusted him?

No, it couldn't be real, he decided as he parked the car and grabbed a shopping cart. Idly he wove the aisles, trying to focus on his list. Why had he hired Tod? Could his inability to remember be chalked up to 'magic' too? He felt the pendant in his pocket. Had this all been some elaborate plot to steal from his family? That seemed so much more logical, and yet…and yet his demeanor with his daughters, how attached they had become sewed doubt in that theory. What sort of thief made friends with the person he was stealing from? A con artist perhaps, but why wait so long? He could have made off with so many valuable things in one night while everyone slept.

Looking at his list he glanced back up. Ice cream. He needed ice cream, but not just any ice cream. He needed this exact carton here, he thought as he pulled out the carton of rocky road. Ramen. He could use some ramen too. Why did he need it? He just did, he decided.

How was he going to find a new nanny? The process had been grueling for him in the first place. If only he could remember how or why he had even hired Tod.

Rain pattered down as he loaded the groceries into the car and drove the foggy streets home. Making up his mind to press Tod for answers, he was unprepared for what met him at the door.

Instead of his girls playing inside on the rainy Saturday, only Hyacinth met him at the door, and she didn't look happy.

"Are you going to help me bring in the groceries?" he asked, wondering why she was just standing there.

"Daddy you can't get rid of Mr. Fischer!" she erupted, her hands balled into fists. Clearly she had been waiting for him to come home to announce her loyalty.

"Honey this isn't-"

"No!" She interrupted him. "You think he's lying but he's not! I can do things! Things nobody else can do! Mom always knew, and Mr. Fischer does too! If you get rid of him I'll…I'll run away! I'll run away and I'll never talk to you again!"

David frowned at her. "Cinth, I know you think you can do things. Your mom had a good imagination too-"

"It's not my imagination! I can light sticks on fire just using my eyes! I can fall without getting hurt! It's not my imagination! It's not…" She paused, her face red and beginning to scrunch as a child's does prior to crying. "I don't know why you don't believe me," she choked out and turned, disappearing into the kitchen.

Intent on stopping all this nonsense, David followed her, but just as the name was on the tip of his tongue he was forced to stop in shock. The cutlery and tablecloth seemed to be floating along in midair before arranging themselves appropriately onto the table. Fern placed a small vase of lilacs that appeared to be twice the size of normal ones onto the table now set. David had never touched LSD in his life, but was this what it was like? Had someone slipped him something?

"Hands washed?" Tod asked the girls lightly as he appeared to conduct an orchestra made of food as it flew from the pantry and fridge to meet in the air. Chicken thighs swam in teriyaki sauce before being caught on skewers that sprang from the utility drawer. Rice tumbled into a pot of water on the stove, which then levitated to the table with a spoon, fluffy and steaming by the time it reached there. A knife chased carrots and peas, cornering and dicing the former, and then rounding them up like a cattle dog to evenly divide upon the plates with grace. Feeling the plastic bag in his hand rattle, David saw the bottle of soy sauce released from it, uncap itself in the air, and then add a few drops to each person's chicken, which arranged itself nicely onto the rice that the spoon was serving each plate with some sort of invisible hand.

The girls had arranged themselves at the table, Daisy giggling and trying to grab at the spoon that danced away from her as it donated some rice. Hyacinth was scrubbing at her face, scowling at her food, while Fern watched him, as if willing him to believe that which he could not.

"This is _so_ much easier than doing all this no-maj style," Tod drawled. With a flick of his wand a chair pulled out for David to sit. "Really it's a wonder you even advanced with all the work you have to do to even eat!"

David was sure his mouth had been open the entire performance. He shut it, only to open it again and ask very softly, "You…you're doing magic, aren't you?"

Tod smirked, "What clued you in?"

"Told you he wasn't lying," Hyacinth sniffed.

David composed himself, grabbing his fork as the girls began to eat, waiting with obvious hope for the conversation to come.

"This…this magic…how does one, acquire it?"

Tod picked off a piece of chicken. "You don't. You're born with it, or you're not. It's a bit funny really. A lot of it runs in families, but two no-maj's can still produce a magical kid, and vice-versa. Your wife came from one of the most powerful magical families in America, which partly got her the job as an Auror."

Lory had told David that her parents had died when she was young. Had she lied? "What's an Auror?"

"They're like a magical police force. I'm sure your wife had to take 'business trips' and stuff right? Probably seemed tired after them too I'm betting." He was right. "She was off catching some dark wizard probably, and obliviating no-maj's that saw too much."

"You keep using the word no-maj-"

"That just stands for folks like you. No Magic."

"And how do you know my girls have it…?"

"Little things. The way Fern's gifted at plants," he said, fingering the lilacs, "how I caught Hyacinth lighting things on fire, and Daisy is so sensitive to dementors."

"Demen-wha…?"

"I know," Tod said, taking a deep breath, "It's a lot to take in."

"How many of you are out there?" David asked, picking at his rice and finding it surprisingly delicious.

Tod shrugged. "A lot, I suppose. Enough to fill a school."

"And my wife went to this school?"

Tod nodded.

"Did she go with you?"

Tod shook his head, "No, I'm younger than you and your wife. We were in different years. She graduated before I started."

"Then how did she know you?"

Tod frowned, pausing at the question. "We crossed paths, on occasion. I was the only one to ever know that she was married and had children though."

David's mouth felt dry, and he blurted out the question that had burned in him from that morning. "Why didn't she tell me…us? And she didn't tell anyone else? Why?"

Setting his chicken down, Tod sat back in his chair and met David's gaze. "It is two-fold I expect. The first is because she loved you very much, and I think she was afraid that you would reject her, even with Rappaport's law being repealed-"

"What's that?"

"It's an old law repealed 18 years ago that states that there is to be no contact between the magical and non-magical community in America. We couldn't marry no-maj's, have children with them, or have any contact whatsoever. Anyway, I think she was afraid of it, the stigma from it, and her fear of losing you over it. The other reason is due to her career as an Auror. She was the head of the department, and she made a lot of enemies in that time, powerful as she was. Enemies that would have loved to use anything she had against her, including all of you."

"Mom was bad-ass," Hyacinth murmured.

"Hyacinth!" David hissed at her. He then peered at Tod, and the lines began to connect. "She didn't die of cancer, did she?"

With the same inscrutable expression on his face as the day he had caught David crying, Tod shook his head. "No. No, she was cursed. I suspect it was by the very pendant that's in your pocket now."

Surprised, David pulled it from his pocket and help it helplessly in the palm of his hand. "How did you know-"

"When it disappeared from my room a few weeks ago, I figured you had found it, but was surprised you never confronted me on it."

"But how did-"

"Dark magic like that leaves traces. It's easy to recognize if you know what you're looking for. I bet you felt compelled to buy it, right?"

David nodded, feeling a chill wash over him. "Are you saying…that I-"

"No. You had no control over it. That's how the Imperius curse works. Even the most powerful witches and wizards have fallen prey to it. You did nothing wrong David."

Silence fell onto the table.

Before David let himself feel too guilty for buying his wife the likely cursed pendant, Fern asked, "Are you an Auror then? Did you used to work for Mom?"

"No, unfortunately not. Like I said, your mother and I crossed paths occasionally, and she chose me because of my particular skill set with charms and the like. She knew I would be able to protect your home and your daughters," Tod explained, without giving away too much. He had a feeling they would not be as welcoming if they knew he was one of the dark wizards she had hunted.

"You mean someone's trying to get us?" Hyacinth asked excitedly. Daisy squealed in delight.

David looked at them. "Girls I think Mr. Fischer would have told us we were being hunted by some crazy witch."

"Not really…" Tod drawled, levitating the dirty dishes to the sink and then murmuring, " _Scourgify"._

"You mean that the people who cursed the pendant might still be out there?" David asked harshly.

"There is no 'might' to it. They are very much out there. I don't think you're in particular trouble David, but your wife seemed to think that the girls might be. And since none of her department know you exist, she sent me to protect them until they could each go to Ilvermorny at age 11."

David did not know what Ilvermorny was, but he needed more answers. "You mean to tell me that there is someone out there that could be plotting to kill my children at this moment?"

"I don't just think they are, I know they are. I have two friends who are observing their movements. They'll let me know if they make a move. Until then, I've been making sure there's lots of protective charms on the house, and nothing can sneak in."

David did not look reassured. "Can't we ask the policemen- I mean the Auror's for help?"

Tod looked uncomfortable, "Mallory's agreement with me stipulated I was not to tell them. I am unsure of her exact reasoning, but I suspect it is that they are not typically subtle, and she may have been afraid that they would give up the position, or be too wary of you since you're a no-maj. Rappaport's Law still carries stigma, even though it's been repealed."

David swallowed and picked up his groceries from where they sat on the floor. Some ice cream sounded good right about now.

"I'll go get the rest of the groceries," Tod offered, trying to give him a bit of time to digest everything they had discussed. "Feel free to have desert without me."

Despite the excitement of the day, the girls were yawning early, and David felt exhausted as well. The emotional marathon earlier had truly taken it out of him. He still had a lot of questions, but they could wait till the next day, he decided as he crawled into bed that night.

At first, he didn't know what woke him from the nightmare he had been having, but David rolled over and quickly stumbled to the bathroom to expel whatever he had eaten in the last 12 hours. There was something red in there too. He felt hot and shaky, and the room seemed to be moving on his own. His brain felt as though it wes moving through sludge, and he had a hard time holding onto thoughts. Kneeling in front of the toilet, he took deep breaths, trying to compose himself. It felt as though he had the flu. As he raised himself, rinsing his mouth and flushing, a gentle knock from the door startled him.

The slim silhouette of Tod in his undershirt and boxers was revealed at he opened the door. Blinking away his blurry vision, he could see Tod frowning. "You've caught it too I see. I just got the girls settled with some dittany. Let's get you back to bed and I'll get some for you as well."

Tod helped him back to the bed, his long fingers cold upon David's arm. "You've splattered on yourself. Let me get you a fresh pair," he said softly, letting David sit before rummaging around in the dressers for a clean pair of pajamas. With the flick of his wand, David was out of his soiled clothes and into his clean ones before he even had time to feel embarrassed. Tod let him lay down and disappeared momentarily to come back with some sort of warm tea, which he sipped slowly with help. Tod lay a cool cloth on his forehead, which felt heavenly compared to the pounding that was currently thrumming in his head. David drifted off.

When he came to, David felt marginally better. Clearly some amount of time had passed, as there was sun streaming in through the curtains, and given its position, David supposed it was about mid-day. He only meant to close his eye for a moment, but a hand at his shoulder brought him back to consciousness that he had not realized he'd lost.

Tod was sitting on the dressing stool which had been drawn close to the bed. "I brought you up some more drink, and thought you might like to try some soup," he said. "Which would you like first?"

Thinking briefly about it, he reached for the mug. His mouth felt like sand paper. Tod helped him to sit up and quench his thirst. With each swallow he felt better, the pounding in his head lessening. Whatever the herbal wetness was, it was good. Tod watched him expectantly, and David could see the dark circles under his eyes, his clothes no longer creaseless and clean. "How long did I sleep?" he asked, his voice croaking.

Taking the mug and handing him the mug of warm beef soup left over from Tod's first attempt at a recipe, the young man answered, "The better part of two days. Don't worry though, I let your boss know you were quite sick. You and the girls have been getting better since I figured out it was the ice cream she put the potion in. Potions was never my strong subject, so it took a little bit. I'm sorry for that."

David's brain felt like it was trying to walk through water. Potions? Right- magical world. Of course there were potions. "Was it some sort of illness in a bottle?" David asked, half joking.

"No. It was supposed to make your insides bleed out. Thankfully Fern has been growing Dittany in the backyard, so I was able to counteract the bleeding. It wasn't until I figured out you brought it home with you in the ice cream that I could brew the antidote. You just drank the last of it. The girls are already on the mend."

David frowned. "Do you think it was that person who killed Mallory?"

"I'm fairly certain," Tod sighed and sat back. "I've already sent word to my friends to come back. We need to think of some other strategy, because being on the defense all the time isn't working."

"I'm sorry I brought it home," David blurted, feeling guilty yet again. That was twice he had been tricked into bringing something potentially deadly home to loved ones. At least this time Tod was here to catch it and help.

"Don't be. I should have checked all the bags. I should have thought of it."

"You look tired. And hungry."

"That's because I haven't stopped taking care of you all in 72 hours."

"You haven't slept? Or eaten anything?" David asked incredulously.

"Thankfully the one thing I can brew is Wide-eye potion," Tod tried to joke.

David silently offered him some soup.

"Naw, you enjoy the last of it. I'll go grab some ramen and take a nap before my friends get here," he said, standing and stretching.

Feeling nearly better, David said, "If your friends get here before you wake back up I'll have them wait in the living room until you're up."

"Thanks," Tod yawned and slipped from the room.

A short cat nap later found David refreshed and hungry. Standing and dressing, he met his eldest in the hallway. She greeted him with a hug.

"Mr. Fischer said you're the hero of the day with your plants, Fern," David inquired with interest, taking her hand as they descended the steps.

She smiled shyly. "Mr. Fischer says I'm going to be really great at something called herbology when I go to Ilvermorny."

The other two girls were already downstairs, digging through the pantry. "Well I'm not magician, but I think I can rustle up some waffles. Who wants to help me?"

All three girls eagerly grabbed the ingredients. When Mallory had been out of town, waffles had been a favorite of all three for dinners when David came home late and was too tired to bake a hunk of meat or do anything too involved.

Multiple waffles and slices of bacon later, Fern set aside a plate for Tod when he woke up, and David cleaned up the kitchen. "Remember that Mr. Fischer is sleeping, girls, so try to keep the noise level down to a dull roar," he said as the girls disappeared into the living room to play. Wiping off the cupboards one last time, David pondered how quick it would be to clean up if he had magic too.

A knock on the front door brought him out of his reverie. Hyacinth peered around his leg as he opened it to find a young man of Japanese origin who looked as though he were about to go on stage at some rock show.

"One of Tod's friends?" he inquired. Had Tod ever told him what his friend looked like?

"That would be me," he grinned, his square teeth immaculate. "My brother is standing guard around the corner. Daisuke Watanabe," he introduced himself.

"Come on in. Tod is sleeping at the moment, so you can wait in the living room here if you like. I'm David and these are my three girls, Fern, Hyacinth, and Daisy."

"Tod's told me all about you three and what trouble makers you are."

Hyacinth boldly asked, "Are you a wizard too? Like Mr. Fischer?"

"Ah so he's told you then has he?" Daisuke smirked, whipping out a shining cherry wood wand and shooting a few red sparks from its tip.

"Please don't explode anything in the house," David said, trying to curb the enthusiasm of the room.

"Don't worry man, I was just joking. Listen, I know he's sleeping, but I really need to talk to him, so I'm just going to run upstairs and get him up. I'm sure he'd want to be awake if he knew what I was going to tell him."

Remembering how exhausted Tod had been, David followed Daisuke up, the girls on his heels, mildly protesting the stranger's actions. "He's really exhausted Daisuke. He's been up at all hours the last few days taking care of us, and…"

He fell silent as Daisuke opened the nanny's door with the lazy flick of his wand. It was nothing like David remembered. There was a real, live owl sitting atop a bird cage, head under wing, asleep. Knick-knacks and all sorts of odd looking objects covered nearly every inch of the dresser. A large bin sat in the center, swirling with a misty-looking material, while an orb sat next to it, shadowy figures moving here and there within it. Books cluttered the top of the trunk, and one even appeared to be snoring.

"Wow," Fern said, looking at all the things. She had to grab her youngest sister from running into the room and grabbing things.

"Don't touch anything," David murmured, looking about in wonder. For all they knew, touching one of these would turn that person into a pumpkin!

Meanwhile, Daisuke had wandered over to the lump in the bed, shaking his shoulder. "Wake up, man. I have some bad news for you." He paused and tried again. "Tod?" No response. "Tarian?" he asked in a whisper.

David and the girls gathered around the bed in curiosity. Turning his friend toward them, Daisuke swore under his breath. Tod was white as a sheet, perspiration moistening his hair, his breathing bordering on tachypnic, and his face a general picture of discomfort. Daisuke rounded on David, "You said Tod had been taking care of you guys for the past few days. What was he taking care of you with?"

David tried to recall something, anything Tod had said when he had been sick. "Something about a potion, and ice cream."

"Did he say what he had been treating it with? The antidote?" David shook his head. He could not recall.

"Dittany!" Fern chimed in. "He gave us Dittany until he made the medicine to make us better!" she exclaimed, and David could feel pride swelling in his chest.

"You have some here?" Daisuke asked, words rushing from his mouth.

"Uh-huh. Mr. Fischer and I are growing some in the backyard," she explained.

"Ok, you need to take me to it. As for you," he commanded, looking determined, "Run a cool bath for him and change his clothes and sheets. These are soaked through. If he throws up, tell me if there's blood in it."

Without waiting for a response, Daisuke rushed out the small bedroom with Fern. Gathering his wits, David rolled up the sleeves of his sweater and saw a terrified Hyacinth and Daisy, waiting to help him. "You girls go turn on the bathtub for Daddy ok? Make sure the water is luke-warm."

Hyacinth nodded mutely, taking Daisy, who was on the verge of crying, to the bathroom with her. David uncovered the young man, who looked now so young, and undressed him. He did not stir, the only sound he gave being the rattling of his breath. David wasn't sure he would be able to lift him, but Tod was lighter than he supposed, though he was sure being too busy and worried to eat the last few days must have helped his case. A fatherly urge ran through him to make sure that Tod at 3 square meals a day when he was feeling better.

The bath cooled the overheated body, and David sat with him, while his younger girls changed the damp sheets on the bed. David rinsed the boy's dark locks, and marveled at some of the scars that were littered here and there on his bare body. What had been Tod's job before looking after him and the girls? Perhaps something dangerous? And if Tod had known that the poisonous potion was in the ice cream, how had he gotten sick?

Shortly after dressing the boy and tucking him into bed, Daisuke and Fern returned with a warm mug of what David recognized as the first drink Tod had given him when he'd fallen ill. Cradling the boy's head, he coaxed him to drink it until it was gone, the others watching with eager, bated breath. Letting his head rest back onto the pillow, David tucked the sheet that had slid down back up, and lay a damp cloth on his forehead to help with the fever. Light blue eyes opened a sliver, not fully focused.

"Mother…?" a feeble voice whispered up to him.

David didn't have the heart to correct him. Instead he adjusted the cloth and assured him, "You'll be ok. Just hang in there." The eyes closed with a soft sigh.

"When did you buy the ice cream?" Daisuke asked.

"The other day…" David frowned. "I'm sure Tod threw it out though."

"What other food did you buy that day?" he pressed, agitation in his eyes, despite his patient demeanor.

"A lot. I don't know. Tod said he hadn't eat the last few days because he was so busy taking care of us. The last thing he told me was that he was going to take a nap and eat…the RAMEN! It must be the ramen! I never buy that stuff, but I bought it this past time and I can't remember why! Just like the ice cream!"

"Perfect!" Daisuke exclaimed. In a flurry of movement, he looked through Tod's books to find the one he wanted just on top. "Fern, I'm going to need your help again, because you know where everything is," he said, looking to her from the door frame. She raced after him.

David resumed his vigil, Hyacinth and Daisy coming to sit on his lap. After a moment, Hyacinth asked, "Daddy, is Mr. Fischer going to die?"

David shook his head. "No, we're going to take care of him, just like he took care of us."

It took longer than David thought it should. Apparently, the antidote needed 12 hours to brew, so all they could do in the mean time was keep giving Tod the Dittany, and do their best to keep him cool. He would moan and shake sometimes, and then quiet after David talked to him.

The vigil was long and lonely that night, especially after putting Daisy, Fern and Hyacinth to bed. At one of the quiet moments, David looked about the room. The owl had long since disappeared out the window. Daisuke had explained that the magic community used owls for delivering the mail. How anyone had trained owls to do this, David didn't want to know. The gadgets about the room were intriguing. The musty shapes in the crystal ball seemed to be getting clearer, but David couldn't be sure. It was the stone bowl with strange markings on it that truly piqued his curiosity. It glowed faintly in the dim light of the evening, and every now and again, David was sure he could hear voices coming from it.

It was at one of those instances in the wee hours of the morning that he finally gave in and looked at it. Large Italian nose hanging over the bowl, he looked in. Was that… a person in there…?

Suddenly he was falling in, the smoke and silver threads corrugating together to form a large rotunda, filled with natural light. Four large statues towered around him of fantastic creatures that David did not recognize. How had he gotten here? Was that bowl some sort of portal? Children of varying age flanked the overlooking balcony above him, but before he could call out, a voice sounded, "Fischer, Tarian Wilhelm!"

A thin, sallow boy with fine black hair and bright blue eyes shuffled to the center of the Gordian knot at the center of the floor. After looking at him for a moment, David recognized the boy as Tod. Why were they calling him Tarian?

The boy was facing the large cat-like statue, as if expecting something to happen with it. Instead, the statue to the boy's right, a large snake-like creature, seemed to react to his presence, the large jewel upon it's forehead glowed, surprising the boy and nearly everyone else in the crowd.

Like a great wind moving through the place, the scene changed, blowing away the rotunda and replacing it with a large orchard that sat in front of a grey, castle-like house. It was clearly hot out, the summer cicadas singing in the mid-afternoon heat. The boy from before was tucked up in a large tree hanging with Spanish moss, now older and closer to the dapper young man David recognized. His nose was in a book, but it was clear he was ignoring the other young man below. This one was thicker, with blond, wavy hair, and the same bright blue eyes as the boy in the tree.

"Excuse me," David said, "I think I'm lost. Can you tell me-"

"Tarian, come down," the older man called, clearly not hearing David.

The book snapped shut. "Why? So you can bully me into becoming an Auror?"

"You have the marks!" The man on the ground exclaimed. "I don't understand why you- you'd be perfect at it! Mom and Dad and me…we just want what's best for you."

"No, you don't," Tarian countered, leaping from the tree and landing nimbly on the ground. "You haven't looked at me the same since I sorted into Horned Serpent. You just want me to be like all of you! You don't want me to be the only Fischer to never join your little gang, Wyatt! Look at me! I'm not a warrior! I like books and puzzles, not beating people up!"

"You're smart Tarian, use it for something good! We do good in the community! We keep everyone safe!"

"Yeah? Tell that to Gertrude James. I'm sure she feels really safe."

The man named Wyatt whipped out his handsome wand. "Take that back! You know we had no choice!"

"Or what? You're going to blast me? Go ahead. Prove how hot-headed you are, picking on your unarmed brother. Prove how you are exactly right to carry on the Fischer name. Prove how you're mommy and daddy's perfect little-"

There was a sharp bang, and David flinched, dust from the orchard coming up in a cloud. When it cleared, Tarian was on the ground, though slowly rising back up. He winced, and looked at his left arm, which was clearly burned.

"Tod, are you ok?" David rushed to him, but was shocked, when his hand went right through the boy, as if her were a ghost. Tarian looked up at his brother and slowly rose to his feet.

For his part, Wyatt looked properly ashamed and horrified by his own actions. "Brother…Tarian. Hold on, let me heal it."

"Get away from me," Tarian growled, a loathsome expression on his face as he turned away back into the orchard.

"Tarian wait!" he called desperately.

But Tarian did not, instead disappearing into the trees, nursing his one arm.

Suddenly, David felt and hand on his arm, and he was pulled out of the scene, back into the little pink room in his own home. Bewildered as to how he had gotten back, he looked about and saw Daisuke looking up at him with a firm frown. "Dude, don't you know it's rude to look at somebody else's memories without asking?"

"Is that what I saw?"

"Yeah, that's what a pensieve does. You take out your memories or thoughts and store them in here sometimes. Tod says it helps him think. Now, help me get this in him," Daisuke commanded, holding up a mug of steaming bright pink liquid.

Slipping a hand underneath Tod's sweat-soaked locks, they coaxed the liquid into him. After setting his head back down, dark eye-lashes fluttered against pale skin, and blue eyes opened in a bit of confusion. "Dai…?"

"That stuffs going to take a little bit to work," the other wizard explained.

With a small nod, Tod closed his eyes again, evidently preparing to sleep off the rest of his illness. Looking out the window, David realized that morning had come.

By the afternoon Tod was up, showered and able to clean his owl's cage, which Daisy found fascinating. Thus David found them curled on Tod's bed together, reading _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them._ Seeing the two of them, he felt confused. This Tod was nothing like the boy in the pensieve, with the exception of looks and his obvious bookishness. But that other Tod was fierce, callous, and ultimately alone. This one seemed much more balanced and domestic. "How are you feeling?" he found himself asking over Daisy's excited giggles.

"Better. I heard you stayed and took care of me. Thank-you. No one's done that for me in a very long time," he answered, his voice soft and containing a certain warmth that had not been there before.

Before David could respond, Daisuke walked in to check on Tod as well. "Hey man, how are you-" He stopped abruptly and looked out the window. From seemingly no where a silvery monkey leapt through the window, landed on the floor in the middle of the room and opened its mouth.

"Madison Ruthway is coming. Run."


	8. The Most Wanted Wizard in America

Chapter 8: The Most Wanted Wizard in America

Tod leapt from the bed despite the lingering nauseous feeling he had. Daisuke was already in motion, a swirl of swear words muttering from his mouth as he grabbed proper clothes and threw them at Tod, who dressed immediately.

"Daisy, go help your Dad get your sisters. We need to leave now," Tod rushed.

David looked perplexed, "Where are we going?"

"I don't know yet, but I don't want to face Madison here. There's too many people and you could get hurt," explained, grabbing his wand from the dresser and throwing his black leather jacket on. Glancing at the orb he could make out Madison's figure and face, but who was the blond-haired bloke, not long behind her? He couldn't make out the face. He didn't have time to think about it.

"Side-along apparition?" questioned Daisuke as the family flew down the stairs.

"We'll have to," Tod responded, grabbing sneakers for each of the girls.

"Should we grab anything?" David asked. "How long will we be gone."

"I don't know. You'll have to do without," Tod answered, earning an incredulous look from the father.

"You could always grab some stuff man, but you won't survive long enough to use it," Daisuke reiterated, trying to cut the tension of the moment.

With his recent illness, Tod was sure Madison had been waiting until his magic and he had been too weak to hold the many protective charms he had placed on the house, and as they stepped outside into the twilight, Tod was sure it was true. This was further confirmed when a curse flew over his head, splintering the wood above the door frame to a chorus of shrieks by the girls.

" _Protego!"_ he shouted, parrying another curse, this one with better aim.

Daisuke put up his own weaker shield, having never been as gifted in charms as Tod, while he rustled around in his pocket for something. Madison appeared before them in the street, a wicked grin on her heart-shaped face, and her eyes hungry for a duel. It was then that he realized that they would have to fight. There was no way he could safely apparate the family away while shielding them. Despite any lingering effects of the poisonous potion, Tod steeled himself against the impulse to flee, and out of the corner of his eye, saw Daisuke reach the same conclusion. It was going to take both of them to duel her.

"Hide behind the car," Tod commanded, descending the steps to the street shoulder to shoulder with Daisuke. If they couldn't protect the family, the car might, and he could keep an eye on them in case Gertrude was not far behind her partner.

Entering the street, wands raised, the opponents stared at one another, an eerie fog beginning to roll in.

"I suppose it's a good thing that this Kray is better at potions than he is at charms," Madison hissed, gesturing to Daisuke. "Come to save you, did he?"

Neither Tod nor Daisuke said a word. From the time he had last seen her at graduation, she looked sharper, meaner, and all the effects a disappointing life can have on the body. Even with Daisuke, would he be able to beat her?

In a sudden flurry of movements, all three wands swung, a flurry of jinxes spilling from lips. Jets of light flew about, setting off car alarms, stopping a single car coming down the street and breaking several neighbors' windows. So much for a statute of secrecy. At least the fog was hiding most of their actions.

" _Confundo!"_ Tod shouted, but Madison expertly deflected, and it hit Daisuke instead, who fell back and began to look very confused.

"This is pathetic! How did you become the most wanted wizard in America?" his opponent taunted.

Down to the two of them, Tod ducked and parried to the best of his ability, but found himself backing up, the cold metal of the car eventually reaching his back. Fear gripped him; he couldn't leave the girls defenseless!

That fear heightened however, when Tod quickly realized that it wasn't just him. The rattling breath of several dementors reached his ears as several slid out from between the buildings, and he heard Madison say, "Even the most wanted wizard in America is no match for me anymore. When I'm done with you and this job, I will finally teach those Silver Spears that you don't need an Aspen wand to be the best duelist in the world! Even the man known as death was no match for me and my power!"

How could she be controlling them? Had she turned to truly dark magic? The hooded figures slid past her, and Tod shivered, feeling the weight of every crime, ever fight, every misdemeanor. No! He would not allow it to end here. The girls, he had to keep fighting for them. The way Daisy laughed and giggled, lighting up the room; the quiet moments of gardening with Fern, teaching her what little of herbology he knew and watching her soak it up like a sponge; how Hyacinth had opened up to him, seeing him as a teacher and older brother, the only one she could confide in since her mother died. No. This would not end here. He would protect them!

Thinking only of them, he held his wand up and roared, " _EXPECTO PETRONUM!"_

Instead of the thin, wispy shield he could only conjure previously a shining silver bat erupted from his wand tip, flying with gusto at the dementors, driving them successfully away.

Madison looked infuriated, and raised her wand to fire off another curse, but was hit from the side by a jinx, sending her flying along the pavement. Looking up the street, Tod saw Takeo, out of breath and running toward Daisuke, firing spell after spell at her with his usual flamboyant technique.

"Sorry I'm late," Takeo breathlessly called, joining Tod's side. "I couldn't remember exactly where the house was. Thankfully someone managed to get off a patronus in the fog. What's wrong with my brother?"

"Confunded," Tod answered, joining him. "And that was my patronus."

"Really? Nice one," Takeo grinned and they approached Madison, who was desperately trying to rise from the ground.

" _Crucio!"_ Tod spat, watching as Madison screamed and writhed on the street. Pausing, he demanded, "Why is Victoria Shaw trying to kill the last of the Graves'?"

Madison panted and looked up at him, a scowl on her face.

" _Crucio!_ Answer my question!"

Giving her a break in his torture to answer, Madison lay on the asphalt, a grin appearing on her face. "You're all going to die," she began to laugh maniacally. "If Victoria doesn't kill you, HE will."

"Who is he? Who is he!? _Crucio!"_

As she began to scream, two things happened simultaneously. Tod felt a blow from behind him up the street that sent him sprawling. At the same time, he saw Takeo hit from the front, and the visage of Gertrude James appear, just behind her partner. Giving him a scathing look, she grabbed hold of Madison and disapparated from the area without saying a word.

Sitting up, he felt dread crawl into his stomach as he saw several figures from up the street running toward them, yelling. The most prominent was a tall, handsome blond man with a square jaw, the sight of whom made Tod want to vomit.

"Stop!" The man cried. "MASCUSA! Drop your wands!"

Looking over at Takeo, who was lifting himself from the ground, prepared to fight, Tod rushed, "Grab your brother and go! I'll cover you."

"Man, you can't do this to us again! We're not going to leave you!"

"You're more use to me looking out for the Graves'. I know what I'm doing! Now go!" Standing, Tod threw his powerful shield charm, giving Takeo just enough time to grab his brother and disapparate before an anti-disapparition charm could be cast on the area. Seeing that the Watanabe brothers had successfully escape, Tod glanced over to the Wilson-Graves family, and found all of them unharmed, peering with awe and shock over the protection of the now much dented car.

Looking back at his opponents, he dropped his wand and held his hands up in surrender.

"Grab the wand," the blond commanded to one of his team members, pulling out a pair of magic handcuffs and roughly pulling Tod's arms behind his back.

"Nice to see you too, Wyatt," Tod smirked, a certain venom in his voice as he was shoved to his knees.

MACUSA was exactly as Tod remembered it: Imposing. All the might of the wizards of America lay within the concealed entrance of the Woolworth Building. David and the girls were brought along as witnesses and to be checked for magical injury before being obliviated, and out of the corner of his eye, Tod could see them looking around in wonder. They had apparated multiple times in order to get from San Francisco to NYC, the floo network being out of the question for a no-maj and three little girls. He noted with irony that the great clock had ticked over to the section that read 'Unexplained Activity'.

The old art deco decor remained in some places, while other things had been updated in the grand space. The old iron-gate elevators, for one, had been replaced with beautiful glass, so that one may observe the floors as they travelled up. Tod was placed in one with Wyatt and two Aurors flanking him, should his hand so much as twitch in the thought of his wand. Several of the other Aurors had been left behind to clean up the mess that had been left on the San Francisco street, and to obliviate any no-maj's who had seen a little too much.

A soft voice spoke to them from above as the elevator slowed, "Level E: Law Enforcement and Auror Offices."

Down the corridors of little offices the party travelled until they came to a heavy metal door at the end. Inside was a very bright room, the illumination making it so that nothing could be hidden, and Tod vaguely remembered its mention from time to time in parts of his childhood. His parents had usually referred to it only in the same sentence with the worst of criminals.

He was sat on a heavy wooden stool, and from there he watched as the Wilson family were huddled onto one of several benches laid out in front of him. A few more Aurors filed in, but he noted that his aging parents were not among them. He assumed they did not wish to further their embarrassment by being present for what he was sure was to be a mock trial.

Wyatt, flanked by two other Aurors, one that Tod recognized as the wizard who had accompanied Mallory in trapping him, stood a few feet in front of him. Their towering presence was a formidable wall to keep the wizard from trying anything off hand. Tod watched them speak among themselves briefly, a bored look on his face, carefully emptying himself of emotion should they try any Ligillimens on him. When they finished, the young man to Wyatt's right produced a small vial of clear liquid from the breast pocket of his leather jacket and handed it to Wyatt. Potions was not Tod's strong suit, but he knew exactly what that was, and a shiver ran through him.

"You will drink this, and answer every question we ask," Wyatt commanded, but as they made eye contact, Tod could read the apprehension there. Wyatt did not like using this, even against his wayward brother.

"I would take it from you, but you have left me no hands with which to do it," Tod said, trying to maintain his bravado.

With caution, Wyatt stepped forward and took the dropper from the vial. Tod stuck out his tongue, and three drops were places upon it. It didn't taste like anything in particular, neither bad nor good.

After waiting a requisite amount of time, Wyatt began, "Please state your full name."

"Tarian Wilhelm Fischer," Tod said, trying to empty his mind of emotion, to block off all the parts of himself he did not wish to shed light on. The potion was like dragon fire, however, burning the truth through him.

"What year were you born?"

"1958."

"Were you the most wanted wizard in America?"

"Yes, until September 18th of last year."

"What was your most embarrassing memory as a child?"

Everything in him tried to stop the words that bubbled forth, "I was terrified of thunderstorms. I hid in a closet. You accidentally locked it and I became so scared of never being able to get out, that when father had opened it, I had wet my pants."

Wyatt turned and looked at a young woman sitting in the front row of benches, who then began to scribble furiously.

"Did you murder Abernath Winkle in your heist of the blue diamond of Zeriph?"

"No. Abernath was his killed when one of his own hexes rebounded on the diamond itself. His accidental death was not premeditated."

After several names, and several similar answers, Wyatt asked, "Was it because of these instances that you became known as Death, or Tod among the guild you joined?"

"Yes."

"When did you join that guild?"

"Shortly after being disowned by my family," Tod answered, feeling as though the breath was being ripped from him. His eyes pleaded with his brother's, begging him not to dig up that particularly painful skeleton, but he saw no mercy there. Only duty.

"And why were you disowned?"

Tod clamped his mouth shut, feeling sweat drip down his temple with the effort.

"Give him another drop," suggested an older wizard to Wyatt's left.

Pulling out the vial again, Wyatt held up the dropper expectantly, to which Tod held out his tongue obediently.

A squeezing sensation formed around his middle, and despite his efforts, the words tumbled out. "I was disowned because I could not live up to the Fischer standard. I thought I was helping a man apply for a wand license when I was a clerk in Auror department. Instead, I helped him smuggle dragon eggs for a terrorist plot to destroy the no-maj seat of power in Washington DC. In my effort to try and conform and be useful, I had tried to do a job I was unsuited for, and had very nearly broken the Statute of Secrecy. I was disowned for my incorrigible dark ways, and inability to meet the standard of courage and strength to which I was raised."

After pausing for a moment, Wyatt switched topics abruptly and asked, "Did you kill Mallory Graves."

"No."

"Did you have a hand in her death?" Wyatt tried again, looking a bit disconcerted by the answer.

"No."

"Do you know who did?"

"A woman by the name of Victoria Shaw. She has some sort of grudge against the Graves."

"How do you know this?"

"The Krays have been observing her for me."

The wizard to Wyatt's left spoke again, "The Krays of the Crystal Coyote guild? What are their real names."

Tod ground his teeth, trying to hold it in to the point that tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. "Takeo and…Daisuke…Watanabe."

A murmur rustled like leaves among the Aurors sitting on the benches.

"Did you threaten Mallory to allow you to leave?" Wyatt asked a bit louder, silencing the murmurs and pressing on with the interview, his piercing eyes observing Tod.

"No. She had captured me after setting a trap for me, then released me."

"Why?"

"She cut me a deal."

"What sort of deal?"

Tod hesitated again, trying to keep it in, but found that he was weakening as the interrogation went on. "We made an unbreakable vow."

Another murmur flew through the Aurors.

"What was the nature of the unbreakable vow?"

"She agreed to allow me to go free if I made it."

"What was your alternative? Execution?"

"No. Mallory knew I wouldn't mind dying. The alternative was life imprisonment for my crimes. She knew I feared a cage more than death," he answered.

"And what was the unbreakable vow that you made?"

"To protect her children from the person who had cursed her, upon her death from said curse. In return, she would erase my record and release me."

"Mallory didn't have any children!" an Auror blurted out.

"She did," Tod countered softly. "In fact, they're in this room right now," his eyes flicking to the family for the first time since entering the interrogation room. Benches creaked as the various people of the room, even the young witch fiercely taking notes turned to look at the three little girls and the tall Italian man with them.

"She had children with a no-maj?" an older Auror croaked.

"She married that no-maj. She loved him, but she knew that her family and most of the wizarding community would never approve, so she hid him, and all three of the girls as each of them were born."

The room erupted into chaos, the little family looking bewildered as half the Aurors came up curiously to them, shaking their hands, while the others shouted about not buying it, about Tod's powerful Occlumency skills.

"Enough!" Wyatt shouted over the din, effectively silencing it once again. He rounded on the family. "Do you know who we speak of?" he asked them, his tone even.

"Mallory was my wife, and I loved her very, very much," David answered, holding the girls close to him, his voice quavering just a bit from emotion. "She never told me about all…this…" he said gesturing to the room and the people in it, "but she is the mother of my children. Tod is telling the truth."

"Thank-you," Wyatt said, and turned back to Tod. "So, under the pain of imprisonment, she forced you to make the unbreakable vow, the most wanted man in America. She could have easily called upon any of us. We are still loyal to her. Why you?" Tod noted the jealous edge in his voice.

"I am unsure," Tod admitted, his brows furrowed.

"You sorted into Horned Serpent. You're supposed to be smart. Enlighten us with your speculation."

"She didn't need a warrior. She needed someone who could hide her daughters effectively until they could attend Ilvermorny. Who better to hide things than a thief? And what better thief than the most sought after one in the country?"

Wyatt frowned at him for a moment, and Tod could see the regret and jealousy springing up in his eyes. He had been close to Mallory when he joined the Aurors, and for her to have chosen his wayward brother over him was hurting.

"Perhaps we shall go discuss with the delegate what to do," the older Auror from before suggested.

A murmur of ascent grew within the room until Wyatt said, "Alright. In a half hours' time we will come back and decide what to do with Tarian and the children."

Wyatt and the majority of the other Aurors left the room, leaving only two guards and the secretary witch in the room with he and the Wilson family.

Apprehensively, David looked around and approached Tod, the girls shielded behind him. "Are you still under the influence of that stuff they gave you?"

"Yes," he answered, feeling a touch of fear in his breast. What more could they want to know? He wanted so badly wanted to wipe his face from the tears that had formed earlier.

"So, I trusted a criminal to watch my greatest treasures?" he inquired, a certain steel in his voice.

"Yes."

"I cannot remember why I chose you. Every time those first few weeks, when you destroyed the toaster oven and burned every dinner, I thought of firing you, and then for some reason forgot to. Did you use magic on me?"

Tod could feel another drop of sweat roll down his temple, his chest once again constricting to force the truth from him. "Yes. I was unfamiliar with no-maj cooking, and I couldn't use magic in front of you, so I used the Imperius Curse to make you hire me and keep me on. I stopped after the first few weeks."

One of the guards looked sharply at Tod, as if he wanted to spit at him, but said nothing. Performing unforgivable curses on no-maj's evoked that sort of response he supposed. Though he had needed it at the time, he felt ashamed of doing it now, and wished he had found a better way to convince David.

"So, you're really a bad guy?" Fern asked, her large eyes searching his own.

Tod didn't want to answer that. It was too complicated. Yes, he was commonly on the wrong side of the law, but he never asked to be. He never asked to be so different from his family. But bad had a lot of spectrums. Grindewald was bad. That bloke in England who had been killed a few years ago, who had been massing an army called Death Eaters, was bad. Tod had no grand political uprising scheme. He was no dictator. If anything, he was an anarchist. He didn't set about to break the law; he simply ignored it to achieve what he needed to in order to make a living since his disgraceful dismissal from MACUSA and his family.

Thus, he answered, "Sometimes."

"So, Mom didn't even like you? You just got caught by her?" Hyacinth asked, righteous anger in her voice.

"I am unsure, but-"

A door to their right opened and the Aurors returned, followed by a very prominent looking witch in shining black robes. Her brunette hair was tied up in a business-like manner, and she was neither thick nor thin. After waiting for the group to re take their seats and quiet, she began, "The forms and referrals made by one Mallory Graves, former head of the Aurors, are all genuine. Mr. Tarian Fischer is relieved of all charges. After review of the what witnesses have discussed today, it is clear that the law was also on his side today, as those he was protecting were aware of the magic, and he was forced to use magic to protect them. All other witnesses have been obliviated, and the following Witches and Wizards have been moved up on the most wanted list: Madison Ruthway and Gertrude Elizabeth James. Any news or capture of them will be rewarded handsomely.

"As for the children, it is in our best interest to defer to their living guardian, despite his being a no-maj. Sir," she said, rounding on a surprised David, "Would you prefer to continue your wife's wishes to employ the former criminal Tarian Fischer, or would you prefer to have trained Aurors to protect the last of the Graves' until this threat can be nullified. To help you with this decision, I can tell you that it will be an all volunteer team of highly trained professionals who are highly talented in defensive spells, as well as tracking dark witches and wizards."

A jolt of realization flew through Tod. They weren't letting him off the hook. He was still under the unbreakable vow. If he did not protect those children from the Shaws, he too would die. It was MACUSA's way of seeming amicable to the Wilsons. They would trust the Aurors, and they would be disappointed. Those Aurors weren't infallible, and they didn't know Gertrude or Madison like he and the Krays did. His heart clenched as he thought of Fern, Hyacinth, or Daisy having the Cruciatus Curse or the killing curse used against them. He was soiled, dirty, and likely deserved to die for all the pain he had cause, for being born a stain upon his family's long mark in American history, but not those girls. He could not allow them to suffer because he had failed to protect them. They didn't deserve that. They deserved long, happy lives filled with magic.

He locked eyes with David, willing him to not fall for the obvious trap, to keep Tod with them, despite the lies and tricks. There was a reason his wife had chosen Tod above any one of her Aurors. Let her reasoning make sense to him.

The words out of the man's mouth made Tod's heart break. "We will take you up on your generous offer, if you would be able to protect my girls," he said, looking back up to the prim witch in front of him. Worse yet, was that none of the girls made a peep in protest.

"That's settled then," the witch said in a pleasant tone. "Tarian Fischer, you are hereby evicted from the Wilson's home. Upon release from MACUSA you will have 24 hours to remove your things from their property. Failure to do so will result in their confiscation, as they will be infringing on a working Auror zone. David, if you and your family would come with me, I will show you our team of volunteer Aurors…"

Watching the little family depart, only Daisy glanced back at him, a confused look on her small face, and so absorbed in it, Tod didn't feel his wrists finally free from the handcuffs. His freedom, his life, and the lives he cared about above all others disappeared through the heavy metal door, which shut with a screeching thud behind them.


	9. Taken

Chapter 9: Taken

"He's gone?" a high, feminine voice inquired thoughtfully.

Reclining on a modern sofa that was worth more than some houses, Madison Ruthway nodded. Her body still hummed with the knowledge of the pain it had been subjected to just a day previously. She hadn't thought that Tod would have had it in him, being the bookish, skinny boy she remembered from school. He had never joined the dueling club, but she remembered that he had been just as skilled as she in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and if she was being totally honest with herself, probably the most talented in their year at Charms. Despite his talents, he had always been quiet and moody, never a great attractor for friends or attention. At least now he was out of the picture. "MACUSA replaced him with Aurors."

"Will this make things easier for you?" Victoria asked. Today she wore another slinky black and white dress, and she sitting like an aloof cat upon a small posh stool while her son played with matchbox cars around her on the immaculate white rug.

"Yes, and no." Gertrude answered from her perch on the window sill. "They will be harder to outright kill with so many pairs of eyes on them. On the other hand, they'll be easier to get past their hiding charms and such. With so many people involved in the operation, it will be easier to find someone that slips up. They would almost be easier to steal…"

"Then let's do that. Bring them to the little island prison in the bay, and I will take care of them there myself."

"Then can I stop holding it in, Mommy?" a voice asked from Victoria's feet.

"Of course baby. Then you'll be free, and we won't have to ever worry about that curse on you, and you can be normal. Just like Mommy and Daddy."

The child went back to playing, and once again Madison felt an eerie chill descend on her that had nothing to do with the dementors she had persuaded to help her in this task. Whatever curse she was talking about, it even made Madison uneasy. After exchanging a knowing look with Gertrude, she turned back to Victoria. "How would you like us to contact you once we succeed?"

Wyatt did not know how his brother had done it. How could three little girls have made such a mess in such a short amount of time? He looked around at the scattered hell of barbies, clothes, dolls, legos, coloring books and stuffed animals, picking them up one by one while the children washed for bed. David had just returned home and was eating dessert and cleaning up from dinner while Wyatt tried to restore some modem of order to the house. Sitting at the table, still in his suit and tie, David watched him as he rinsed off several legos that had become sticky with juice. He didn't even remember giving them juice this afternoon.

"You're Tod's- I mean Tarian's brother, aren't you?"

Wyatt eyed him, surprised. "Yes. How did you know?"

"I saw you in his memories." Hardening his glare in askance for clarification, David sputtered, "I accidentally stuck my head in his bowl that he kept on the dresser."

"He had a pensieve?" This was news to him.

David shrugged, bringing a spoonful of pudding to his mouth. "That's what his friend called it. He told me I was rude for looking without permission."

Wyatt said nothing and set the legos on the side of the sink to dry. His curiosity piqued he leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. "And what memories did you see?"

"I saw him at the school, and the snake with the jewel on its head flashed."

"Ah yes. That was him getting sorted into Horned Serpent. It certainly shocked my family," Wyatt scoffed, a certain fondness in his voice.

"Why? Is that house bad? I know Hyacinth said something about wanting to be in Wampus house…"

"There are four houses at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Wyatt said slowly, trying to use the most elementary words possible. "The statues in the sorting room are imbued with magic to discern the strengths and personality of a child and decide in which house that child will learn best and go furthest. Puckwudgie looks for healers and those of great heart. Thunderbird looks for the adventurers and senses the strong soul of an individual. Wampus is for warriors, and those strong in body. Horned serpent favors scholars and those with a strong mind. Once in a very great while, more than one statue reacts, and that child can then choose for themselves which house they may be happiest in."

"He was looking at the big cat one, and seemed surprised that the Horned Serpent I guess lit up," David said.

"Our entire family has always been chosen by Wampus. All the Fischers have since the school was founded. It's a source of pride, as most of us go on to be great Aurors."

"Not your brother?"

"No, he was always too sensitive and smart. He relied much more in his quick wit than developing a strong body. Retrospectively, he was a perfect fit for Horned Serpent."

David nodded, "Yeah I saw it was a source of contention between you both. Do other families fight like that when it comes to houses? My girls won't fight more than they already do, will they?"

"There is some inter-house rivalry, but for my parents, it was hard having a son like Tarian, who wanted to hide in a tree and read rather than go down to the pond with the boys and fish or play games. He used to sit in our library for hours and hide from them. Why? Did you see us fighting too?"

"Yeah I saw you hurt him in the orchard place."

Wyatt felt his face flush with shame at the memory. "That was not my finest moment. He had just fought with my parents about the job they had gotten him as a clerk in the Auror department for when he graduated. I thought he was being rather ungrateful. I went to try and go smooth things over and failed miserably. That was our first real fight. I mean we fought a lot as kids, but that was…that was bad. I had always stuck up for him with our parents; always thought he just needed some help and acceptance to be like the rest of the family. I tried to make him more like us. He went along with it, for me, but I think deep down he secretly hated it."

David poked at the last of his pudding. "That stuff about your family disowning him. Is that true?"

Wyatt sighed heavily. "Yes. What I didn't realize until yesterday was that when Tarian originally testified after the dragon incident, he was telling the truth. My parents thought he was lying. It was an accident. Every death we pinned on him was an accident." Wyatt could still clearly picture a younger Tarian in his minds eye, begging Wyatt to listen to him, to convince his parents it wasn't because he was ungrateful for the job. He was just bad at it. Tarian was very perceptive, but he was unfamiliar with Auror systems and how wand registering worked, so that when he had finally given into his suspicions, he had nearly been too late.

"Why didn't you just use some of that drink to make sure he was telling the truth?"

"Vertiserum? We have a very limited supply of it. We only give it to our worst criminals. At the time, Tarian had no record, so we never even bothered. I was too ashamed of him to suggest it."

"So, then he figured that he had nothing to lose and turned to a life of crime?" David prompted.

"Yeah. Without my parents he was penniless, and he had just lost a job at MACUSA in a record fowl-up. No one was going to hire him," Wyatt admitted. "So, he joined a crime guild and dropped his given name to go by Tod. His specialty was extracting valuable items without being detected and then hiding very well afterward. Your wife hunted him for several years until she finally got him last September."

"You knew her?" the widower asked softly, a pang going through Wyatt's heart as he thought of the man's loneliness.

"Yes. I was her senior agent. We worked very closely together. She was a magnificent woman. You are very lucky," Wyatt said, but his words sounded hollow in his head. If David were truly lucky, his wife would still be here.

"Yeah, she never really told me about…all…this," he said with a sort of bitterness in his voice as he gestured to all of Wyatt.

"It was a smart play on her part," Wyatt soothed. "It protected you and your children and allowed her to advance in the Auror department."

"Yeah, Tarian told us about Rappaport's law, and how the stigma is still there. What sort of stigma is it?"

Wyatt pulled a chair from the kitchen table and took a seat, "Back in the early days of America, there weren't Aurors to catch criminals and enforce law. There were a lot of wizard outlaws, doing it for the money. They were known as Scourers, and they were terrible and corrupt. They would sometimes pass no-maj's off for witches and wizards just to get some gold, and don't get me started on the Salem witch trials. At any rate, once we formed our own government in MACUSA, we brought them to justice. Wilhelm Fischer, my relative, was one of the first Aurors in fact. Some of the Scourers escaped justice though, and with such big bounties on their head, disappeared into the vast no-maj communities. They married, had children, but stamped out most traces of magic from their lines, and instead cultivated a hatred for it, just like they hated the community they had once belonged to and now hunted them. The absolute conviction that magic is real, and that anyone who possesses it must be exterminated is what drives us to maintain our secrecy like we do. After one incident in which a well-known witch fell to the charms of a Scourer boy, nearly revealing all of the American magical community, Rappaport's Law was enacted, which required all wands to be registered, kept at school until a child graduated, and finally forbid the marrying of non-magic folk and starting families with them. Even friendship was forbidden. It was for our own safety."

After pausing for a moment to let David digest the information, he said "Mallory must have loved you very much to buck the old traditions. She was from one of the most prominent wizarding families in America. Like mine, her family have been traditionally made up of Aurors."

"Thanks," David murmured, standing and taking his dish to the sink. After taking a deep breath and straightening, he asked, "Why do _you_ think she employed Tarian to look after our children, and not any of you?"

Wyatt frowned. The question had bothered him as well. "I don't know. Mallory was a brilliant witch, but sometimes her logic was beyond me. Usually it worked out for the best, so I never really questioned it. This one has even me baffled though. My brother has no experience with children, and while he is rather gifted with charms and defense spells, I cannot imagine choosing him among the many good agents she had at her disposal."

David nodded, but in the dim light of the kitchen, Wyatt could see the regret on his face. "You feel as though you betrayed him, huh?"

David nodded with a sigh. "I feel like I've betrayed both of them. It sounded so much better to have a trained task force look after us, but now that he's not here, the house is so much different. Not anything against you guys; he just had a way with each of the girls. They adored him for some reason or another. Now we're back to square one."

Wyatt nodded, feeling some of the guilt as well. "Yes it was an awful position to put you in, and I'm sorry we did it. And the choice relieved our guilt and transferred it to you."

David looked perplexed. "Why would you feel any guilt?"

"Because my brother made the unbreakable vow with your wife. By getting you to choose us, we may have condemned him."

Brown eyes searched familiar blue for a moment, before David asked cautiously, "What happens when you break an unbreakable vow?"

"You die."

Looking stricken, David blurted, "You mean I-"

"No! No, since the children are safe, my brother is still alive. But if something were to happen to them, he would die for breaking the vow. That's why I didn't stop you from choosing to use us instead of him to protect your children. The senior undersecretary, the woman who asked you to choose, her end game was to get rid of Tarian since she didn't have the legal means of executing him any more since your wife cleared him of all charges. I only agreed to it because despite everything, being disowned, our fights, everything-all of it, he's my brother. And if I can keep your girls safe, I know my brother is as well."

David nodded, still looking torn, quiet descending into the kitchen. After a few moments, Wyatt noticed and asked, "Don't your girls normally come back down after they've cleaned up?"

"Yes, they pack their bags for tomorrow morning and get their lunch pails out for me to fill," David murmured.

Deserting the kitchen, Wyatt took the stairs two at a time calling out, "Girls?"

"Fern? Hyacinth?" David called after him, close on his heels.

Reaching the landing at the top of the stairs, Wyatt noted the buzzing silence, looking in each of the rooms with foreboding, finally reaching Tarian's old room, now simply used for storage. The window was wide open, allowing breaths of cool evening air in. Sticking his head out, Wyatt could see the crumpled form of another Auror below and felt his heart sink. Turning back to David, he could see the other's face crumble as he stated, "The girls have been taken."

Tarian stared up at the ceiling. The fan that hung swirled lazily around, Tarian's eyes tracking the movement sometimes, other times staring at nothing. The lumpy mattress beneath him was digging into his right shoulder, but he could not find it in himself to care. He was sure his discomfort would soon be gone, as well as every single one of his failures. In his mind's eye he could see them, but none hurt as much as leaving those little girls after having betrayed their trust with lies and deceit. Would he have told them the whole truth eventually? He liked to think so.

In all his life he had always found himself in the wrong, not by choosing, but by happenstance. It was not his fault his parents had wanted him to be something that he was not. He liked books and learning, not fighting. He hadn't meant for the Horned Serpent to choose him. It was not his fault that he had let his brother down. He had not meant to smuggle those dragon eggs. It was not his fault those people had died. He had simply been so hungry, that not stealing those things meant a gruesome death of starvation. He had preferred the swift purpose of execution to that. But he had willingly entered into this vow, and willingly kept a dead woman's secrets. He had many regrets in his life, but letting down those little girls, letting them slip into someone else's hands without a fight, would always be his greatest regret he decided.

With the rain pouring outside, he almost missed the sound of steps on the old wooden stairs that led to the tiny attic he occupied. There was a knock and someone entered, but even the effort of turning to look seemed like too much effort.

"I brought you some onigiri," a voice said. Takeo? No, more likely Daisuke. A stool scraped across the wooden slats. "You know you can't sit up here and mope forever. C'mon you haven't eaten since you got here."

Tarian took a deep breath, and his eyes flicked to Daisuke's. He didn't see any malice where he should have. "How are your parents taking it?"

Daisuke scoffed and set the plate down on the wooden crate Tarian had been using as a night stand. "Better than yours. They understand, and are mad we made them look bad. They said our careers weren't honorable to our family, but they are unsure how to help us otherwise. Just because they're Liasons, doesn't mean they make a lot of money."

"I'm sorry," Tarian whispered, eyes flicking to the rain. He had apologized as soon as he'd contacted them, and continued to do so at moments. He felt terrible for blowing their cover under the veritaserum.

"Don't be. They would have figured it out sooner or later. We couldn't hide what we did forever," Daisuke shrugged. "The real question is what are you going to do about those girls?"

His gaze turned back to the fan and he sighed. "Nothing."

"Tarian Fischer, I did not get confounded and my cover blown for you to do nothing," Daisuke remanded. Softening he added, "Tarian, Takeo and I know you care about them. I saw the way you were with them, and the way they were with you. You're the big brother they need, just as much as they're the family you need right now. We've worked enough missions together to know that you're not like that with anyone else, even us. Now what are you going to do about them?"

Tarian let his words sink in and frowned. "I don't know. I don't know if I can even do anything. How am I supposed to protect them? Sit out in the rain in front of the house? I still don't get why Mallory would want me to do that."

Daisuke frowned and tilted his head, his black locks falling to the side. "Maybe she didn't want you to sit there and protect them. That's what Aurors are doing. Maybe she meant for you to do something else?"

Tarian finally sat up, his head swimming for a second from having not eaten anything. He grabbed for an onigiri and found it stuffed with fish. His favorite. "Like what?"

"I don't know, you're the criminal mastermind," Daisuke smirked and shrugged.

But he was right. Tarian had been the most wanted man in America, and there was a reason: he was good at what he did. When it came to stealing things though, the best thing in one's arsenal was patience and observance. You had to pick up the little details and learn everything about the person you were going to steal from. And if things went awry, you improvised. You thought outside the box. Relied on your intellect. But what did that have to do with…realization poured over him like the cleansing downpour occurring outside.

"She never meant for me to baby sit them like that. She expected me to go after whoever was trying to hurt them once I had hid them all effectively."

"Well we know Victoria Shaw is behind it, and she's a no-maj. But it's really Gertrude and Madison that-"

"No. They're fine. I mean, we know them and we know their end game. Madison wants to be the best duelist on the planet, and Gertrude is looking to hurt Aurors after her unfair trial. But what do we know about Victoria Shaw? Why would she want the Graves? How does she even know about magic? It's stealing 101- why does the client want what they want?"

Daisuke sat back, looking at Tarian, trying to keep up with his logic. "Maybe she's a Squib and she feels jilted about not being magic?"

Tarian swung his legs over the edge of the bed and leapt to his feet, "Ok but why does she want the Graves' dead?"

"They were the most prominent wizarding family in America."

"And the Shaws are the most prominent no-maj family. What if they've crossed paths?" Tarian queried, his voice beginning to rush. Popping open the lid of his battered trunk he dug about until he produced a beaten up textbook with a gold embossed title of _America: A Wizarding History._

Daisuke gave him a confused look, while Tarian flipped through until he came to what he was looking for. "Aha! I knew it! Look here!" He turned the book for Daisuke to read.

" _…and it wasn't until the obscurus killed a no-maj known as Henry Shaw Jr, a man who had been running for the no-maj congress in Washington, that the threat was fully taken seriously…"_ he mumbled for a moment before continuing as if he had struck gold, _"Percival Graves, once released from Grindelwald's capture helped his department re-organize and clean up the city. Many people were obliviated successfully with the help of Newt Scamander's beast. Those having difficulty were visited personally by Percival, who felt guilty for being captured by Grindelwald. Among the difficult no-maj's was Henry Shaw Jr's younger brother, Langdon. Percival is said to have never been sure that he had been successfully obliviated, and he later married Chastity Barebone. She was of the same Barebone family that were at the heart of Rappaport's Law."_

"Of course she believes in magic. They know it, and they hate it. They're Scourers," Tarian said eagerly. "What if Langdon was never fully obliviated? What if he believed Percival and the Graves' were behind his brother's death, especially since Percival visited him in person. It would be the one wizarding family he knew."

"Ok, but that happened in the 1920's. Why attack them now?"

It must be something that had been happening recently, thought Tarian. What else would drive her to go after the magical community? Had someone else died from magic? Or where they about to? Once again it dawned on him. "When I was fighting Madison, she said that if Victoria didn't get me, a 'HE' would."

"'HE' who? I thought old man Shaw was dead?"

"What if it's not someone older, but younger. Here, read this paragraph here," he pointed just below the picture of a woman and her three children, one boy and two girls. They were standing and scowling out from the page, looking about in a generally unhappy fashion.

 _"Above is a picture of the Barebone family, circa 1922. The boy, named Credence, would become the obscurus that nearly destroyed the International Statute of Secrecy, after being beaten by his mother and egged on by Grindelwald that fateful day in New York City."_ Daisuke looked up expectantly, not quite connecting the dots.

"You told me Victoria had a son right? A sickly son who couldn't come out much?"

"And you think he's an obscurus?"

"Yes! It makes sense! That's her motivation! The Barebone family was once magical. They're bound to produce magical offspring once in awhile. But they also hate magic, and when you make a child bottle it up inside, make them fear their own selves…"

"…you get an obscurus," finished Daisuke.

"She's a no-maj and a Barebone, and a Scourer. She was brought up with stories of the Graves' magic, and how it destroyed her uncle. Now her son is beginning to show signs of magic and she's scared, as a mother, so while smothering her child in her attempt to protect him, she's lashing out at the only name she knows in the magical world! She probably thinks that they're behind it, and that's why she's trying to wipe them all out!"

Daisuke stared, open mouth at him for a moment, Tarian taking deep breaths in his excitement of reaching that conclusion. "Dude, you're crazy. Crazy smart that is!" Daisuke paused and looked around the room. "Ok, but how are we going to find her?"

Tarian frowned and looked out the window, it had finally stopped raining out, but a thick fog was building in the area, depressing the atmosphere. "That one I'm going to have to think about."

Another pair of footsteps on the stairs soon revealed a somber looking Takeo. "What's all the yelling about?"

"Tod's a genius and figured out why Victoria Shaw wants to kill the Graves'. Now we just need to find her."

"Well I suggest you do it quick. There are Aurors all over that house you were at," he explained, nodding at Tarian. "I couldn't get too close, but from what I heard, I think the girls have been taken by Madison and Gertrude."

The atmosphere deflated, as if popped by a bubble. "Well they're not dead," encouraged Daisuke, "Otherwise you'd be dead from the unbreakable vow."

"That's true," Takeo agreed, "but how are we supposed to find them before Tod drops dead?"

Tarian looked about the room. Surely there must be something. He had finally figured out what he thought Mallory had wanted him to figure out. Now he just needed to know how to use it. His eyes raked over his trunk. Nothing in there would help them find the location. Over across the unmade bed, across the night stand and out into the fog…the fog…what a thick, depressing fog…

"I know how we're going to find them. They're closer than we think," he stated, not moving from the window.

"How do you know?" Takeo asked impatiently.

Tarian pointed outside to the dark shapes moving distantly through the thick mist. "We're going to follow the dementors."


	10. The Fear

Chapter 16: The Fear

Tarian missed his old bike. When he had first started working with the Watanabe brothers, he marveled at their enchanted Honda's. Having been a dismal failure at riding a broomstick, he thought be might feel more secure on something with handlebars, and he was right. After buying an old Ducati and fixing it up, along with enchanting the motor, he and the twins had been able to add high-speed getaways to their repertoire of tricks. Losing the bike in his chase from Mallory had been quite regrettable, especially now as he hung onto Takeo's jacket, faintly feeling the effects of the dementors as they followed.

The salty air of the bay soon filled their nostrils, and they had to roll to avoid the legs of the Golden Gate. Coming low to the dark water, they slowed and watched as the dementors descended upon the little island with a few sparse trees and a very recognizable dilapidated building sitting at the top. The single eye of the lighthouse spun around in the fog, doing nothing to improve macabre features of the abandoned prison known as Alcatraz. The dementors weren't doing anything to improve the mood either, instead instilling a fearful, cold atmosphere.

If he thought about it, the place made perfect sense to Tarian; it was out of the public eye, surrounded by fog and water, but still easily accessible to small water craft. In ensured accessibility as well as privacy. In fact, as they came to the dirt with a soft bump, Tarian could see a yacht tied beyond the docking building below them, three small figures exiting it, but he did not have time to pause as a jet of green light flew past his head.

Instinctively he dived to the dirt and gripped his wand, shooting a hex back the way the light had come from. The Watanabe's were up with their wands drawn as well, peering through the bleak fog, looking for the source of the curse. Two more jets of green were loosed, and Tarian dove to the side. This was ridiculous.

Thinking of the girls, he shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" The great shape of a bat burst forth, driving away much of the fog, and slowly revealing the imposing shape of Gertrude James. With a characteristic scowl on her face she expertly transfigured parts of the ground into sharp spikes rising swiftly enough to cleave a man in two, but was forced to stop as Takeo threw a particularly nasty bat bogey hex.

Daisuke leaped next to Tarian and grabbed his arm. "Go find the girls! Takeo and I have Gertrude covered!"

Tarian hesitated a moment He felt as though he was always leaving them. "We have this! Go!" Daisuke shouted and gave him a shove before throwing a shield up just in time to parry a curse aimed for his brother.

Turning away and vowing to make good use of their distraction, Tarian ran into the abandoned building. How was he supposed to find them? There were so many rooms, which could they be in? He paused. 'There must be a faster way through this,' he thought. He didn't want to keep running from room to room…

"Reducto!" he yelled at a wall, which crumpled with the force. Why go around the immense building like a rat in a cage when he could cut straight to the cheese?

After three more times of blasting through the wall he knew he had reached his destination with he heard crying and blast of red knocked him off his feet with the force of a stampeding bull. Smacking his back upon the ground he felt the air knocked out of him. The crying he heard was from Fern. He could recognize it as his addled brain came back to.

Blinking hard he rolled to the side and crouched behind the rubble, peering over to see a large room surrounded by prison cells on two levels. The girls were in the one on the far side of the room. A malicious voice called out, "Come back for round two of our duel?"

Madison stood in the middle of the room, the shadows from the grey day making her eyes look sunken, and her head skull-like. She made it clear that if he was to get to the three little girls, he would have to go through her. He wasn't a duelist, or even much of a fighter, but he would do what he needed to in order to get to them.

Springing up he shouted, " _Petrificus Totalis!"_ and lunged forward, not looking to see if his curse had hit. Rolling to the side as her curse bruised the earth where he had been miliseconds before, he leaped behind a support beam for the second floor, his heart thumping in desperation and his breath coming in ragged gulps. Last time he had been saved by a surprise attack from Takeo. Now he only had himself.

"Shy little Tarian! You were so filled with anger before- where is that now? Why don't you come out and fight me like your parents would?!" Madison taunted, sending curses here and there, shaking the dilapidated building and causing pieces of it to crumble from the ceiling.

Tod ignored her. Looking about he tried to formulate a plan that would distract her momentarily so that he could release the girls to safety. He would have to do it immediately after she threw a curse, so that he could catch her before she could guard herself. Taking a couple deep breaths, he prepared himself.

Spinning to his right around the beam he yelled, " _Expulso!"_

Madison flew back, surprised, and Tarian took the moment to sprint to the other side of the large central prison room. As he approached the cell he breathlessly called, _"Alohamora!"_

The cell sprang open and the girls ran to him, holding tightly. He quickly took in their bruised wrists. They must have been tied. There was rope on the ground in the cell, but it was black. Hyacinth must have burned it. "Mr. Fishcher," they cried, hugging at his legs as he briefly embraced them before gently pushing them back to speak to them.

"Listen very carefully girls. I need to you to go back out through the walls I blasted. Daisuke and his brother Takeo will be there waiting for you. They're going to get you out of here. I'm going to keep this witch occupied so you can escape," he explained quickly in a low voice.

"Don't leave us Mr. Fischer, please don't," Fern said starting to cry again.

"Fern it's the only way I can make sure you all are safe. Don't look back, and don't worry about me. Now go!"

"DUCK!" screamed Hyacinth before they even got started, and Tarian immediately pushed all three of them to the ground, bright green jet coming so close to his body that he felt his t-shirt singe a little, the heat too close for comfort.

Ears buzzing, he came up onto his elbows, peaking over his shoulder at a furious Madison, struggling to stand from the curse that had knocked her back, and then back to the three little girls. Fern was so scared, new tears leaked from her eyes. Daisy's face was beginning to scrunch as she shook. Hyacinth was white as a sheet, eyes wide and full of terror.

No. Whether his life was in the balance or not, Tarian decided right there that no further harm would come to them. He had made his choices, poor though they might be. He was exceedingly expendable. These genuine, soulful, determined, fierce, joyful young girls deserved every opportunity to live out their lives, even if it meant the end of his. Had Mallory known how much he would love them? How fierce his desire would be to protect them? Surely, knowing these girls, she must have.

Standing slowly, he quietly commanded them. "Stay behind me. Alright?"

They nodded quickly, scared.

Turning, he faced Madison squarely. She was taking deep breaths, and her jacket must have been discarded in his blast, revealing a red tank-top underneath, along with strong, toned arms. "You! I am going to annihilate you!" How easily riled she was.

"Didn't you even wonder why Mallory chose me instead of the many Aurors she had at her disposal? Why I was your biggest road block, not MACUSA?"

She paused for a moment. A distant pop could be heard, and apparently the water system was breaking from all the damage of the curses. Great.

"Because she could black mail you!" she growled. "Because you're good enough at charms to be a little house wife."

Tarian smirked, but gripped his wand a little harder. "No. It was partly because I was smart, and she knew I had the resources to figure out your employer and her motivation. But there was another, much larger reason, that even she had come up against when she captured me. Something that even she could not match. Something you'll never be able to break."

Madison scowled at him and raised her wand, her anger ignited by the challenge. With a swift arm movement, she screeched, _"Avada Kedavra!"_

" _Protego Maxima!"_ Tarian cried at the same time, the bright white jet from his wand meeting his opponent's bright green, shielding he and the girls. The green light continued to pour at them, but Tarian stood firm, the warmth of affection and protection filling his being instead of the usual desperation of not dying. It was ironic, how powerful his shield charm was now when he was not protecting himself, but those who stood behind him. But to his credit, it had been abnormally strong before; so much so that Mallory had been unable to best him, when he was captured, and she was, at the time, the most powerful witch in America.

His wand shook in his hand, bright light continuing to poor from it. Gritting his teeth, he looked up to see Madison faltering, confusion in her eyes. With a gentle pulse from his arm, the bright light overtook the green and while it did not have the explosive force of his curse from earlier, it did push Madison back several feet.

Panting, they stared at one another. "How…How did you…?" she chuffed.

"Even Mallory couldn't break my shield charm, and it is all the more powerful when protecting those I love," he paused, then continued, seeing movement behind her. "I may not be able to beat you in a straight duel, but you will never be able to defeat me with such poor spirit."

"That's what he has me for!" called a deep voice behind her. Madison turned to see a tall, handsome, blond wizard in a leather Auror jacket, wand raised at her in a menacing fashion. Behind him stood a tall, thin, Italian no-maj, who looked so relieved at seeing all three of the girls still alive and safe. Apparently, the popping noise had not been the water pipes.

"Daddy!" Daisy called, but Hyacinth held her back, hiding still behind the safety Tarian provided.

"Fine! You want to duel two at a time? I'll kill you both, and when the Silver Spears see that I've defeated two of the greatest wizards in this country, they will finally let me in!" she shrieked, a maddening lilt to her voice. " _Incendio!"_ she shouted, and a stream of fire shot from her wand, writhing like a great snake aiming for Wyatt, who easily received it like a volley, wordlessly sending it back.

Tarain picked up the flames, turned them to water, and sent the forceful stream right at Madison who dove out of the way in time. From the earth she created spindles of thread, sending them toward Tarian while simultaneously turning and shouting a curse at Wyatt. Blocking the hex, Tarian pointed at the debris now stacked on the ground and called, " _Oppungo!"_

The debris flew toward Madison. Dodging it at the last moment, she threw another curse at Tarian who blocked it with ease. Wyatt threw a jet of water from his wand, just as Tarian threw wind from his, in a strong and silent Ventus jinx. Working together, both brothers trapped Madison in a bubble. Repeatedly she used flames to try and escape, but it was futile. Coming in close, the brothers locked eyes, and Tarian could easily read the plan there. With a curt nod, both ceased their jinxes, while Tarian instantly hollered, " _Expelliarmus!"_ followed swiftly by his brother's, " _Locomotor Mortis!"_

Madison dropped to the ground, disarmed and unable to get up and run away. Pulling the same magical handcuffs that had been used on his brother, Wyatt roughly pulled the witches arms behind her back, locking them so that she could no longer do any damage.

An awkward silence ensued, broken only by Wyatt standing up from the cuffs and looking at his brother. "That was a really powerful shield charm," he said, trying to complement him, but looking rather ill-at-ease. Tarian understood; the last time they had seen one another, Wyatt had basically sentenced him to death.

"Thanks," he smirked, the younger brother in him still enjoying the elder's occasional discomfort.

"Daddy!" the girls cried as David ran at them, instantly picking up Daisy, Fern and Hyacinth hugging his middle.

"I don't know how you did it," Wyatt admitted. "Three little girls are so exhausting. Only Daisy really reminded me of Mallory."

Hyacinth, after few moments of her father's embrace, left and walked the couple of feet over to Tarian, gripping his t-shirt and burying her face in it. Tarian put a hand on her back, the warm feeling inside filling him with the sort of glow he had never known. Casting a meaningful look over to his brother, he said, "Every kid is an individual. You just need to get to know them, to figure out what they need in life."

Wyatt smiled and looked down at his quarry, having gotten the message. For her part, Madison was rocking back and forth, silently crying.

In an instant, the happy reunion was over. With the other two adults distracted by the witch or the children, only Tarian, who was so used to being perceptive, even in his most relaxed state saw the little family of three enter from the blasted hole in the wall. The woman did not look pleased, and silently lifted something black and metal, aiming for Hyacinth, still pressed against his torso.

"No!" he shouted, using his hands to shove Hyacinth behind him in the nick of time. Three shots rang out, and with the distance of the room, two missed. The third, however sent searing pain up from his right hip, and he heard an involuntary cry leave his lips. The pain sent him to his knees. There was warmth beginning to flow down one leg. He hadn't brought any dittany.

Wyatt spun to raise his wand but was cut short as the tall man in the nice suit yelled, "Stop! My wife can surely shoot you faster than you can spit out the name of the spell!" Pausing, Wyatt looked torn.

"Now, you will move so that we can get rid of the last of the Graves' and relieve the curse on our son," the woman said, striding into the room as if she owned it, but never taking her gun off David, who now stood in front of the three girls.

Wyatt looked at a loss. "What curse…"

Taking a deep breath and shoving his pain away, Tarian weakly stood, clutching his side. He willed himself to focus on the woman in front of him. "He's not cursed. Whatever you believe Percival Graves did to your family, he didn't. You only believe that wizards and witches are evil because you're the descendent of a bad one called a Scourer."

"I would shut it if I were you," the woman warned, shifting the gun to Tarian. "The Shaws were never like your kind!"

He continued, "But the Barebones were. They descended from a powerful scourer who hated the wizarding community for exiling him for his dark deeds and lawlessness. He made sure that his descendants would enact the revenge he wanted! He selected for no-maj's to carry this out, knowing that wizards feared their own kind being exposed, especially after the Salem witch trials. That's why he founded the Second Salemers. He wanted revenge for being brought so low, and he used his no-maj kin to do it! But that's the thing about magic; it's not always predictable. Your son isn't cursed at all. He has magic."

"Mommy make him be quiet," the boy sniffled, looking to be about Hyacinth's age. He had his mother's blond hair, but he looked exhausted, as if he were in some horrendous battle for ages. Tarian figured that in a way, he had been.

"Dustin doesn't have magic," her husband chimed in. "He's frail."

"A frail boy who destroys half your house when he's upset? A frail boy who you can't take in public because if he lets loose, you're afraid people will die? A frail boy who you have to have tutors for because he can't attend school since he's so unstable? Day in and day out you threaten and cajole him to keep those powers in him locked up tight, blackmailing him with your love, because you can't love him if he's a monster! You-"

"Shut up!" Victoria screeched. "He's my boy! And I would do anything to cure him! I love him!"

"Yes, you love him enough to kill three innocent little girls who know nothing about your family and the terrible things you've done." He paused. "Your son isn't cursed at all. It's your fear of magic, your fear of him that's caused all of this!"

Victoria shot the gun with shaking hands, unwilling to believe anything the man had said. It missed, and Wyatt took the opportunity of her distraction. He raised his wand and shouted, " _Expulso!"_ sending the woman flying through the air. Landing hard onto the cement, she did not move.

Dustin and his father ran to her, Dustin shaking her shoulders and crying. Wyatt raised his wand again but Tarian stepped in front. "Stop," he demanded. "He's becoming an Obscurial. We need to not upset him, and get him a healer. They'll be able to reverse the process."

Turning, he saw the nightmare he dreaded forming.

"Dustin. Dustin no. Keep that inside son," his father pleaded, but his face betrayed the horror of what was happening. The boy seemed to be disintegrating into darkness before them, tendrils of black curling with energy and poised to reach out and destroy anything they touched. It seemed to curl up like a snake ready to strike.

"Move!" Tarian shouted to them, throwing up his shield charm and watching the horrific scene as the father was thrown back into the support pillar. Dustin exploded in a furious cloud of black. Bouncing here and there, ripping apart the inside of the prison, destruction rained down upon the others. Wyatt pushed away any of the large pieces of metal and rock to protect the family behind them, along with their prisoner, while Tarian's shield held off the onslaught of the beast as it came around.

"Dustin! Dustin, listen!" Tarian shouted above the din of twisting metal. "Please listen to me! I know you're hurting!"

The black, greasy cloud paused in it's destruction of the room and hovered in the center. A pair of white eyes could be made out in the center. Slowly, so as to not upset him, Tarian lowered his wand and relinquished his shield. "I know they said terrible things to you to make you scared of your own power. You're a very gifted boy Dustin, and just because you're different doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you," he said, slowly approaching the shifting beast. It seemed to be listening. "I know what it's like to have parents who want you to be something different. It hurts doesn't it? Not being who you were meant to be? It doesn't have to be that way though. I know you love them, and I think in their own way, they love you. They just need to learn who you really are. Let me help you learn to control what's inside you. You don't need to be scared of it."

A sudden bang made him jump, and another fire bloomed from within him, this time in his right breast. He could taste copper, and heard a scuffle behind him, but if he stopped now, Dustin would kill them all. "I know it seems scary doing something new, but magic isn't what your parents told you. It's harnessing the power inside us and putting it to use, to make the world better. I know all you've seen…seen are curses and destruction…but we…we can do good things too," he said, tasting copper in his mouth and unable to draw a full breath of air. Raising his wand, which seemed to take colossal effort, he concentrated on the spell, and watched with bleary eyes as several beautiful, shining butterflies floated from the end of his wand, flapping their wings lazily about the obscurus.

Ever so slowly, the obscurus withdrew, becoming a small blond boy once again. "Are you sure I'll be able to do stuff like that?" he asked in a small voice.

"If I…can do it, you…surely can," Tarian said, falling to his knees and coughing harshly, peppering the cement with blood.

"Tarian!" Wyatt called, rushing to catch his brother as he collapsed to the side.

From the corner of his failing vision he saw Victoria apprehended in the same fashion as Madison, as well as Rufus Cartier. He could hear more ruckus as shouts came from a source he could not identify. Fighting the pain and fatigue, he glanced further up to see the Wilson family running for him, all three girls alive and mostly unharmed. A peace fell over him. He had done everything he could. The threat was averted. His girls were safe.

"Brother…brother no…" Wyatt cried, and Tarian was surprised to have forgotten that his brother was holding him. Why was Wyatt crying? It was so hard to breathe. Everything hurt. He felt so cold, and he couldn't stop shaking. His mouth was filling up with something metallic. "Tarian, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for everything," Wyatt confessed. What was he sorry for? Everything hurt. He was so tired. He needed to go. "Hold on Tarian, I'm going to try and get you help. Just hold on for me…"

But Tarian could not, and his eyes slipped close.

Wyatt decided he hated the color mauve. Mauve and dark green. Why they had to make hospital wards that color was beyond him. It also did nothing for the paleness of the sick and dying, especially the one in the bed before him.

St. Ignacius's was modelled after St. Mungo's in England, like a lot of things in America. It had several floors and many wards, and in his time as an Auror, Wyatt had visited the occasional colleague or victim in it's famed halls. He had gone to school with many of the healers, most of them being from the Puckwudgie house, and had great faith in their healing abilities. It was funny that as a child, his parents had a few scrapes here and there when it came to being Aurors, and he never doubted that the healers of St. Ignacius would have them back on their feet in no time at all. Even the friends who had run into trouble on the job, he worried little about as far as being able to ever step foot outside the hospital again.

This was different. It was his little brother. The brother who would come find Wyatt when he was scared, who would play inside with him on rainy days, and was his shadow for many years of his life. While Tarian had never been one to idolize his brother, he had relied on him to be a union steward for him when their parents would argue with him and vice-versa. Wyatt was caught in the middle of his parents, who expected so much from Tarian, and his little brother, who just wanted to be loved and understood for who he was. So, Wyatt did his best to live up to his parents' expectation for the both of them, while still encouraging his brother as best he could. That was, until he was forced to take sides, and apparently had chosen wrong. He would regret it the rest of his life.

Wyatt had been sitting and holding his brother's cool hand for many hours after finally being allowed to see him. He could still recall the chaos of when he had apparated them. The witches pulling the limp body from his arms, casting spells and pulling potions from their robes as they levitated him to the first floor to stabilize him. Wyatt remembered watching him go, an enchanted mop coming by soon after and cleaning up the blood all over the hallway floor. His brother's blood. Once stabilized enough, he was moved to the third floor for potions gone wrong and poisonous plant injuries, as the healers had quickly determined that the no-maj bullets that had struck Tarian weren't just that; they had been washed in a potion that slowed healing. Wyatt knew it must have been Gertrude James who had helped the no-maj with that. She must have wanted to make sure that even if she shot a wizard, they would not be able to easily heal themselves with a few drops of dittany.

Tarian's breathing had been so shallow when Wyatt first walked in, that he could have swore his brother had already passed on, and they had simply given him some time to grieve with the corpse. Other healers milled about, checking patients nearby. One young witch stopped in to check the wrapping on Tarian's chest, allowing Wyatt to see the unicorn hair on the inside of it, stained bright red with blood. The healer had then changed the one just above Tarian's right hip, levitating him to make it easy. Wyatt could see all the little marks and scars earned from years in the guild, how slim Tarian's body was, and another wave of guilt crashed over him.

"He's very lucky you got him here in time," the witch said, her brown hair tied up and her expressive eyes filled with compassion.

"If he was lucky, he wouldn't be here," Wyatt croaked.

Ignoring his self pity the witch offered, "Would you like some clean robes? I can sit here with him for a bit if you would like to change. I don't have to check my next patient for another few minutes."

Looking down at his shirt and leather jacket, he could feel and see the dark crimson that had soaked in, but he didn't want to take it off. It was part of his brother, and he just couldn't.

Thus, Wyatt had politely declined, content to sit and simply hold his brother's hand, willing him to live. Sure, the healers had told him that he was lucky to have made it in with all the bleeding, so much so that his lungs were drowning in it from the wound in his chest, but after working all their magic, he was still hanging on by a thread. The healers came by and checked his vitals every hour, but there was nothing else to do except hope that the unicorn hair would purify the wounds, and the blood loss didn't take him. He briefly considered letting their parents know, but then decided it would do more harm than good if Tarian woke up.

Concentrating on not falling asleep, Wyatt took in his brother's face, pale with dark shadows under his eyes, a straight nose and high cheek bones. His black hair took after their mother, and he knew from the constant comparisons when they were children that their eye color was the exact same shade of cerulean. Occasionally a flicker of pain would cross his face, and Wyatt would hold his hand a bit tighter.

The witch from before eventually came back, rechecked the bandages in bleak hours of the night, and even brought Wyatt a blanket. Wyatt found himself dozing at times, and it was during one of these moments that he heard a familiar voice say, "Girls slow down. You shouldn't run in a hospital!"

No sooner had the sentence finished when a girl of about nine popped her head through the curtain and then back out to whisper harshly, "Over here!" After, she approached the bedside of Tarian, studying him before looking at Wyatt.

The other Wilson's joined her in the space as Hyacinth asked, "Is he going to make it?"

Wyatt was unsure of how to answer, his sleep deprived brain trying to work out the best words. "The healers have done everything they can. They're hopeful that he'll recover."

"Cold," Daisy said, reaching up onto the bed and holding Tarian's other hand.

"Sorry it took us so long to get here," David said grabbing a few chairs and pulling them into Tarian's curtained space. "We didn't know where this place was, and we had to beg them to take us here. Then, visiting hours didn't start till a little bit ago. I'm sure it was a long night for you. How are you holding up?"

Wyatt shrugged and looked down at his soiled clothes, as if they answered the question.

"Didn't want to leave him, huh?" David said, an empathetic smile on his face. It was then that Wyatt recalled that the man had likely spent hours like this in a human hospital, watching his wife die from a curse. Of course he understood what Wyatt was going through. "You'll probably feel better if you get cleaned up. We can stay here and keep Tarian company in case he wakes up. That way he's with someone he knows," David offered.

"Do I really look that bad?" Wyatt asked.

"Yes," Hyacinth deadpanned.

Wyatt and the rest of the family chuckled, and he stood. "Alright. I'll be back in a little bit. I'm just going to shower and get something to eat."

True to his word, Wyatt was gone for a grand total of half an hour, and he came back finishing the breakfast sandwich he'd grabbed from the cafeteria on the top floor to find the family and Tarian waiting for him.

Quickly forgetting his breakfast on the night stand he rushed to reclaim his seat, taking a cool, clammy hand in his own, as blue eyes watched him with exhaustion and a touch of mirth.

"How are you feeling?" he inquired, keeping his voice low.

"As I just got finished…telling the girls…I feel…like I've been hexed…a few too many times…and then…been given…too much…firewhiskey…"Tarian answered, having to pause and take breaths during the sentences, as if he were running at top speed and trying to speak.

"Yeah, I imagine you do," Wyatt sighed in relief.

"What's firewhiskey?" Fern asked.

"Something you get to drink when you're older probably," David answered.

Weakly, Tarian moved his elbows back to try and sit up, and both Wyatt and David jumped up to help him. "Thanks…" he mumbled, trying to catch his breath once they had finished. "Are Takeo…and Daisuke… ok?...And…Dustin?"

Wyatt shrugged, "I apparated you here, and no one has given me and update. I didn't leave you until David and the girls got here, and it was just to shower and eat." He didn't want to mention how much of his brother's blood had poured off in the shower.

"The kid my age is ok," Hyacinth said, propping herself up onto the edge of the bed and swinging her legs. "Some witches in green robes came and took him somewhere. His parents got taken by a couple of you people," she answered, nodding to Wyatt.

"The twins are ok too," David addressed. "Last I saw they were handing over the other witch to the Aurors as well. They had a couple cuts, but they seemed mostly fine."

Tarian nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. Wyatt watched his eyes become unfocused. "Someone's tired."

Blinking himself awake again, a flash of discomfort crossed his face and he lifted a hand to touch the wound on his right breast. "How…?" he inquired, looking at Wyatt, but it was David who answered.

"That crazy lady shot you again. I think she was scared of what you were doing with her son, so when she came to, she grabbed the gun and shot you. I managed to tackle her right after, and Wyatt put her in handcuffs."

The idea of David tackling anyone was amusing. Satisfied, Tarian leaned back and closed his eyes. "We'll be here when you wake up. Get some sleep brother," Wyatt encouraged, patting his hand.

Shortly after he had fallen asleep, a different healer came in to check the bandages, and David took that as an opportunity to stand, stretch and then cajole the girls to go up to the gift shop to get something to eat and take a break.

When the curtain flaps parted again, Wyatt turned to greet David and found that it was not the Wilsons at all. A witch and wizard stood awkwardly in brown Auror jackets, both appearing to be in their 60's, or at least approaching it. The wizard was tall and masculine, his blond hair peppered with grey, and his square jaw clean shaven. His blue eyes were beginning to be encroached by wrinkles, but they were not the smiling kind. The witch was shorter and stiffer, her black hair tied tightly into a bun, her thin lips pursed in concern. It was she who spoke first to break the tense air. "Someone told us you were in the hospital dear, and we rushed here to make sure you were alright."

A mixture of feelings welled in Wyatt, once again caught between loyalty to his parents and job, and the familial love for his brother. He recalled what Tarian had told the obscurial to calm it; how Tarian had not been loved by his own family, and how they had always tried to make him something that he was not, and his heart panged with guilt. More than anything he wished to get up and physically shield his brother from the two people who had hurt him so much, as only a big brother with strong protective instincts could.

"I'm fine," he answered, keeping his voice level. "Tarian saved us all from the obscurial. He figured out the puzzle that Mallory couldn't."

Mr. Fischer cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. "How is he?"

Wyatt looked over at his brother's pale face, and back to the witch and wizard. "Lucky to be alive. He was shot twice with a no-maj weapon protecting the me and the last of the Graves'. I thought he was going to die in my arms, but so far he's hanging on."

The pair nodded and looked about, the tension in the small area palpable. For years Wyatt had always supported his parents, been just like them, but everything had shifted now, and his parents seemed to realize it as well. Just as Wyatt was going to ask them to leave, the flap opened again and three little girls bounded through and hopped onto the bed, effectively waking Tarian.

"Girls! Mr. Fischer needs his rest! He is still quite hurt!" David exclaimed, trying to calm them, not seeming to notice the pair at the corner of the bed.

"But we wanted to show him what we got him, so he'll feel better," Fern explained.

"Feel better!" Daisy echoed, bouncing at the foot of the bed.

Not seeming to have noticed the pair either, Tarian woke with the clamor and smiled at the girls, "What did you…bring me?"

"We got you this," Hyacinth told him, holding out a white stuffed animal bat. "It's just like the one you made to scare away those monsters! And watch, it can do this!" She gave the bat a hard throw, and it squeaked, and batted its wings like a real bat, gave one loop around the curtained off area and back into her hands. In it's loop, Tarian finally noticed the newcomers and froze for a second, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Do you like it?" Fern asked.

Tarian shifted his gaze to her and smiled softly. "I…love it. It's…perfect. Thank-you."

Fern grinned and held his hand, sitting on the edge of the bed, while Hyacinth laid her head down on his left shoulder. Daisy sat herself as his feet, flipping through the book of moving pictures that Tarian assumed they had gotten from the gift shop. "You're all cold," Hyacinth complained.

"I don't have…much blood left," Tarian winced, and his eyes flicked back up to the duo at the end of his bed, silently asking what they wanted.

David must have followed his gaze, noticing the pair. "I'm so sorry I didn't introduce myself! I'm David Wilson, Mallory's husband, and these are our girls, Fern, Hyacinth, and Daisy," he said holding out his hand.

"Wilhelm Fischer, and my wife, Bridget," the wizard said, clasping his hand, his face a jumble of confusion.

"These are our parents," Wyatt elaborated.

David gave a gracious smile, "You must be so proud of your boys, especially Tarian. He's taken care of the girls so well and they absolutely love him. He's so smart and strong we don't know how we would have made it without him. Thank-you for lending him to us. He's been invaluable."

The older gentleman looked as though he had swallowed something gross. Clearing his throat he muttered, "Yes of course. Seeing that you're on the mend, we'll take our leave. Bridget?"

" I'm sure you have paperwork from this mess. Why don't you head into the office with us?" she inquired, looking to Wyatt.

Wyatt frowned, having made his choice when his brother's blood had soaked into his clothes and his seemingly last breaths had been taken in the elder's arms.

"I'm right where I need to be," he said firmly, sure his parents would realize the length of those words eventually.

"Very well then," Wilhelm said, steering his wife from the crowded bedside.

"Your parents are weird," Hyacinth spat.

"They didn't even ask if you were ok," Fern sniffled.

"Weird," Daisy echoed, her swinging legs gently bumping the nightstand.

"It's alright girls," David chided gently. "Every family is different."

Wyatt let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, feeling the tension rush out of his shoulders and spine. A cool hand slid into his, and he glanced at his brother. While still a sickly pale, he looked far more at peace. Peering and eye open to look at the blond wizard, he whispered, "Thank-you."


	11. Chapter 11: Epliogue

_6 months later_

"They're coming!" a voice shouted from the window.

"Coming! Coming!" a smaller voice echoed, and the patter of feet raced across the floor to where Tarian was orchestrating hanging the last of the greens, his wand edging them just a touch higher to become symmetrical over the archway to the kitchen.

"Alright, you girls wash your hands quick then."

A car door could be heard outside in the crisp December air. A few moments later, voices could be heard, and the front door burst open. In came a tall man with an large nose, a young girl carrying a carrier with a cat in it, and a tall, gorgeous man with sandy blond hair carrying a heavy suitcase.

Just as Fern was setting the cat carrier down and opening it, the excited squeal of "Kitty!" erupted in the doorway, and the small white cat leapt and raced up the stairs, Daisy hot on its heels, giggling all the way.

"Please be nice with Snuggles!" Fern called after her.

"I thought you were bringing Fern back, brother?" Tarian teased, stashing his wand.

"I didn't grow that much!" blushed Fern, but hugged him anyway.

"I don't know," David played along. "You're going to need a new uniform by next year I think!"

"Was it amazing? What did you learn?" Hyacinth butted in, grinning excitedly at her sister.

"Oh Cinth, you're going to love it. I made so many friends!"

"I don't care about friends- I want to know what spells you learned!" the younger scoffed indignantly.

"Alright girls," David intervened, "I'm sure Fern will tell us all about it over dinner. Smells great Tarian."

"Thank-you. Daisy insisted I do it in the no-maj way, so it took me all morning. Really, how you people ever advanced beyond cooking all day long…"

"That's why we invented the microwave," David chuckled.

"What's a microwave?" Wyatt asked quietly as David retreated to the kitchen with the girls.

"No-maj box used to heat some things up. You can't put metal in there though. That's how I broke the last one," Tarian sighed, taking his brother's leather auror coat and hanging it in the front closet.

Leaving the suitcase at the foot of the stairs, the brothers came to the kitchen as well, followed by Daisy soon after, holding a rather bedraggled cat.

"Wow. I knew you were domestic, but I had no idea you were quite this committed," Wyatt grinned at his younger brother. The table had been set with fine linen, the napkins folded into swans, and a myriad of dishes weighed down the table, from fluffy whipped potatoes, to fresh sourdough bread, glistening glazed carrots, bright yellow corn, and a perfectly roasted turkey leaking stuffing from inside.

Tarian shot him a look. "The girls dressed up the table. I just did the cooking. How was the trip?"

"Remind me again why we have to take the car? I mean dissapparating would be so much-"

"-is that the disappearing thing where I throw up almost every time?" David interjected, sitting and folding his hands.

The rest of the table became quiet and Fern said grace. Once the bowls began to be passed, Wyatt answered, "You didn't throw up the first time."

"My daughters had been kidnapped. I was a little preoccupied by that rather than the terrible feeling of being sucked down a drain."

"I never used to like side-along apparition either," Tarian softened, filling Daisy's plate for her. "So Fern, which class is your favorite?"

"Herbology," she grinned through a mouthful of corn. "I really like potions too. It's like baking."

"What kind of wand did you choose?" Wyatt inquired, "Tarian hasn't told me."

"She got a 9 ¾ inch willow with a jackalope antler core," Hyacinth answered for her sister. "I can't wait to see what mine will be," she added.

"Well it sounds like Professor Weedler has a very dedicated, budding herbologist on her hands," Wyatt concluded.

The rest of the meal was filled with sounds of delightful chewing, and it wasn't until the family began to filter out to the living room with their cocoa and chocolate pie that Tarian found himself alone in the kitchen, save for Fern, orchestrating the cleaning of all the dishes. Bringing her plate over to him, she asked in a quiet voice, "Is it ok that I'm not in the same house as mom?"

"Of course it is. Puckwudgie is an excellent choice for you. Is this what you said had been bothering you a bit in your letters?"

"Some people just don't think I'm her daughter, because I don't look a lot like her, and I'm not in Wampus."

Tarian sat on the kitchen chair, still making sure the dishes were cleaned, but putting himself at Fern's level. "You're her daughter, Fern. Not her clone. It's perfectly fine that you're not in the same house she is. In fact I suspect that all three of you girls will be in different houses." He paused, trying to be extra careful with the wine glasses. "Your mother was a warrior. It's how she identified herself. And while she was many things, she did not have the wonderful giving heart that you do. Don't let yourself try to extinguish your best traits in order to be like your mother."

Fern nodded, seeming to accept the advice, but still asked, "What house were you in?"

"Horned Serpent. And the rest of my family, for generations back had been in Wampus. There's nothing wrong with going your own way Fern, and no one here will love you any less, no matter what house you were placed in."

Smiling shyly, Fern hugged her nanny, sending a warm sensation through him. "I missed you. You always give good advice."

"That's because I'm old," Tarian chuckled, "No come on, I think everyone is waiting for us to open a few presents from each other, and we don't want to be late to put out cookies for Santa."

Little bits of paper littered the living room floor around the bright, bushy tree adorned with baubles and strings of multicolored lights. A new book on herbology and set of potion ingredients for Fern. A set of sparing pads and a quidditch poster for Hyacinth. A stuffed dragon for Daisy. A car cleaning kit for David. And Tarian had gotten Wyatt a fresh invisibility cloak, as his old one had worn out.

"One last one," David said, picking up the square package under the tree. "For Tarian."

"You guys didn't need to get me anything," Tarian said, though a thrill went through him. He hadn't gotten anything for Christmas in years. The package was clearly a book, the binding hard through the colorful green paper. "Gee is it a book? You can't go wrong with a book…" He said, holding it up to his ear and shaking it, as if he might hear the title spill forth. Hopefully it was a good read.

"Open it! Open it!" The two younger girls chorused.

"Alright, alright," Tarian acquiesced, ripping the paper to reveal a fresh leather tomb. There was no title on the front. Just a picture in the cover frame of a man and three little girls standing in front of a bright Victorian home, smiling and waving. Opening the cover he saw in big bold letters MY FAMILY. Underneath were several photos of the girls. Hyacinth climbing the tree outside. Daisy taking a nap on the couch. Fern placing some plants at the window sill, standing on her tippy toes to reach.

"Wyatt helped us with the photos since wizarding photos move and stuff, so we borrowed his camera," Fern explained softly into the silence that had fallen on the room.

Tarian barely heard her, lost in page after page of moving photo. David giving Daisy a piggy back ride. Hyacinth and Fern coloring. The final photo, before several blank pages waiting to be filled was Tarian with the three girls, their backs to the camera as they busily made cookies at the counter in the kitchen. Every so often a face turned and he could see laugher and love. His throat felt tight.

"Do you…do you like it?" David asked.

Tarian cleared his voice, but still didn't dare to speak. Men didn't cry, especially for reasons like this. He nodded quickly.

Wyatt caught his eye, grinned and teased, "You always were a little more in touch with your feelings."

Tarian cleared his throat again, and trying not to let the lump in his throat grow, said, "This is the very best present I have ever received, save having the privilege of being your nanny." Avoiding eye contact, he felt 3 pairs of small arms around him, the girls grinning and chattering about how excited they were that he liked it.

With a large, clearing breath, Tarian stood and closed the album, and changed the subject, for he could take no more of the heartwarming emotions without imploding on himself in happiness. "I do believed I promised at least two of you that I would read a book before bedtime, and seeing as how late it is, you better go get cleaned up and in bed if you want me to squeeze it in before Santa comes."

That night, after reading The Polar Express to the three girls, Tarian lay in his bed, sated quietly thinking. He came to the conclusion that this was perhaps the happiest he had ever been in his life, and also one of the few times he had cared so much for one entire family. And it was with this conclusion and the warm utter feeling of belonging that he drifted off, determined to hold onto it as long as he could.


End file.
